


Fudging Futures II

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Background Relationships, Han/Leia/Luke in the background, Hardcase is Hardcase, Hook-Up, Nothing explicit, Other, Sequel, Sex as Therapy, Time Travel Fix-It, also not explicit, kriffing sith plans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 19:54:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19324993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Luke gets to go meet the man Darth Vader once was, and integrates into the 501st while doing it.





	Fudging Futures II

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fudging Futures](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10293569) by [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph), [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly). 



> If you have not read the first, quick summary is that the _Falcon_ came out to a fight above Felucia (just after Ahsoka returned from her adventure meeting Chewie), and killed Grievous. That one change leads Artoo and Chewie to offer further changes, and this is Luke going to work with his father after the plans are made.

Luke had hated watching the _Falcon_ leave without him, but... he needed to be out here, and Artoo was with him. Master Plo, as he'd been invited to call him, was planning to take a personal fighter and an ARC -- predecessor, Luke knew, of his beloved X-Wing, and the closest thing he was going to see in years -- with Luke in the gunner's seat in order to get over to the re-launched from the surface _Resolute_ and his father. (The idea of landing a capital ship still just floored him, but for fast debarking of troops, he guessed it made sense.)

His father. Not the Force ghost, but his living, breathing father, before the terrible injuries that had confined him to the suit, before his Fall. His father, the Jedi Knight Ben had loved so much, who had had the respect of every veteran Luke had ever talked to.

Kriff, but he was nervous about that!

At least his lightsaber wouldn't be a _beacon_ for his father now, or cause a dozen immediate, uncomfortable questions.

Anakin was not at his most comfortable. Between the early excitement of this campaign with his padawan, who was now on detached duty to Kamino without even asking him, and the odd feeling in the Force, he had been wary. He was almost to the point of not being able to enjoy Grievous being dead, as it was a sore point that he had failed to be the one to catch that murderer.

Now, to have Master Koon wanting to talk to him personally, after his own master had touched their bond with concern, checking on him.

What was going on, and how badly was it going to hit? Were they taking Ahsoka away from him? Was that why she had been summoned and then sent to Kamino? He strode toward the bay to meet Master Koon with more anger than he might have needed, upset and afraid of that possibility.

Luke slipped from the ARC -- she _was_ a pretty ship, really, and it wasn't terrible to have company in a fighter -- and started towards Master Plo... and then he felt the simoom-front pressure (that was the only thing he could compare it to, for deadliness and danger) in the Force approaching them, and froze.

~Oh, dear,~ Master Plo said into his mind, ~apparently... best we not introduce you just now, until I can settle Anakin from whatever has him so very distressed.~

~That's --~ It didn't, even mostly, feel like Vader, it was just... overwhelmingly... much. And... anxious as much as angry, he thought. ~Right. I'll just... get back in the ARC.~

~My sons, please remain with Luke at this time,~ Plo said, including Luke so he knew why both men were remaining with him. ~I will be fine with Skywalker.~

Anakin strode in, surprised to see a dome that looked entirely too much like Artoo in the cupola for Plo's astromech, but there was a red ring just around the collar of the swiveling part.

He took in the stance of the Jedi Master, but… he didn't know how to read the man like Ahsoka could.

"Master? Anticipating extra trouble?" he asked, waving at the ARC-170, trying not to worry too much about the very strong Force signature there.

"Not as such," Plo replied, "more that my unexpected guest had reason to accompany me. First, my young friend, I am sorry that I had to so precipitously borrow Ahsoka. She and Shaak share a language the lo--Kaminoans would not find it easy to understand, even were they unwise enough to be overheard."

Hopefully some of his apparent upset was over the commandeering of his padawan, and a prompt apology would soothe it.

That… made sense. Okay. Maybe he wasn't losing her. He couldn't. She was his padawan and he'd -- yeah, better not to think on it. Anakin breathed a little easier, though.

"I am almost pitying the Kaminoans," he said, "if they try to pry into those two discussing anything. Ahsoka's close to a growth spurt, after all." That was a deliberate reminder to Master Plo, one more reason to be irritable at her being gone, away from the men who knew how to help the aches and pains and hunger. "But, unexpected guest?"

"...then I will hope that Shaak has the good sense to send her back to her clan soon, though I have no pity for them at the moment," Plo replied to the unwelcome news of a new growth spurt -- how was his little 'Soka growing up so fast? -- before his tusks flexed slightly in amusement. "The other Jedi I am certain you already sense, Anakin."

As he would believe that young man did not already sense Luke the moment he became capable of breathing oxygen.

"Was he on the ship that took Grievous?" Anakin asked, having read the report of a freighter-turned-gunship being involved in that. He then made himself relax a little. "I did say almost. I'll never truly feel anything but contempt for them, for what they do, and especially for our men."

"He was," Plo agreed, "and... I join you there. I ought not, but... we all have our shortcomings. Is there somewhere nearby that we might speak privately? More comfortably would be... welcome, as well."

Anakin could not help but become even more guarded, despite the reassurance that his padawan, his Snips, would be coming home to him. To -- wait, Master Koon had said 'to her clan'. He knew Master Koon was considered a father by his men, that he called them his sons, but he would apply family to others too?

That was something to think on later, when he did not have the terrifying telepathic Master right there.

"This way?" he said, less sure than he should have been in his voice as he led the way to a ready room that had more or less become the pilot's lounge. No one was in there; they were grieving or sleeping it off from the fight.

"Thank you," Plo answered, concerned at the uncertainty and almost-fright that hummed along the edges of Skywalker's public mind, coiling painfully around the still-present anger. Behind him, Plo heard the sound of boosters. He was unsurprised that the elder R2 swiftly came trundling along behind them, catching up in time to squeak through the door.

"I don't believe I asked for you, little friend," he said, and received a blatantly dismissive optic-flash.

[Someone has to talk sense to Pilot. You Jedi always fail at that.]

Anakin's eyes narrowed, before he really inspected the droid. It wasn't possible, and yet Anakin knew his astromech clearly. Only the red was really different, and the panels covering the boosters looked cleaner and shinier, like they'd been cleaned. That red looked very bright, freshly annealed into place too.

"Master?" he asked, voice low, as the mystery preyed at the edges of his patience.

Plo made an amused noise at the edged comment from Artoo, then looked back at Anakin. "There is no way that you did not sense the Force... event... that occurred just before Grievous' death, given your sensitivity. Your friend, and my guest, were both aboard. Artoo had... a great many things to say, once Ahsoka had unlocked him from your formidable protections.

"I am quite impressed, by the way."

"Artoo is recharging in my ship," Anakin said, automatically, but he looked again. "Buddy?" If the droid told him, then --

He didn't get any further as the astromech rushed over and bumped him. [PILOT!] he said with the fiercest beeps he could muster. [Missed you. Long time future, bad future. Must listen.] He bumped Anakin again, like he did when he was giving reassurance or affection.

Plo's tusks twitched again -- he had never seen such a connection between droid and Jedi. He was friendly with his, of course, and the droid with him, but not... like them. "I'm quite tempted to let you do all the convincing, Artoo, since you invited yourself along."

Anakin slid down to the floor, trying to understand. This was a future Artoo? From that Force splash while he was trying to reach the tactical droid? And he _missed_ his pilot? Why had they been separated?

It was a trick, a trap by the Jedi trying to prove he had an Attachment problem.

That thought made him twitch, made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, and he felt slightly dissociated from everything in the moment. He was having trouble believing this wasn't Artoo, and yet there was no way, or so his mind was insisting.

[Pilot, I am me,] Artoo said with firm beeps, before he popped open a specific compartment, and showed not just his medal collection, but the tiny japoor carving Anakin had placed there when he fixed the memory issues. [See?]

Anakin stared, shocked, and slowly reached out to touch the tiny carving -- he'd know, to his bones, if it wasn't the one he'd carved... but if it was... what then?

Plo sensed something wrong, something twisting and striking in the young man's mind, but kept silent, waiting for Artoo to do what he could.

"Artoo…" He needed to understand. Needed --

[Let General Buir help. You have to be safe.]

"Help with what, Artoo? I'm fine," Anakin protested, as his fingers settled on the carving and he knew it _was_ the one he'd made. This was Artoo, come back to him through the Force, through _time_ itself, and he trusted Artoo more than he trusted anybody.

[No, you are not. Processor bugged. Second operating system trying to run at same time.] Artoo knew it was a risk, but maybe stating it, when he could tell his pilot was struggling with something not adding up would make his pilot more likely to help fix himself.

This was before losing Ahsoka, before Fives was murdered, even before the Stupid Jedi being very stupid and faking his death. His pilot might be strong enough to fight back.

"I -- what? Artoo, you remember I'm not actually a flesh-covered droid, don't you?" Anakin asked, going for humor even as something in the back of his brain was fervently panicking. He was... actually sweating with adrenaline and confusion, his breath picking up speed. "I'm -- oh, Force, what's wrong with me?"

"That, young Anakin, is why I am here," Plo said with warmth and empathy to wrap around the young man. "Artoo here has told me of a grave issue we of the Council enabled. I wish to remove the influences that are hampering you."

[Listen!] Artoo insisted. [Save you to save men, to save everyone!]

"The men?" Anakin asked, focusing on what he actually cared about, making himself think past the sudden bolt of absolute terror that hit him at the very idea of anyone looking at his mind, his memories, his failures --

Artoo said there was a threat to the men, to... everyone? That was too big. The men, that mattered, his men, brave and stubborn and devoted when none of them had ever given them half enough reason to be...

And what did he mean, an issue the Council had enabled? Influences on him?

[Let him help you. Then I tell you everything!] Artoo promised.

Plo moved to sit more openly, indicating the space closer to him. The fear was something he could maybe address. "Did you know, Anakin, that as a Baran Do Sage, I am held to a higher standard of conduct for my use of mental gifts, especially during healing, than as a Jedi? My people would forbid me landing on our world, and forbid merchants from giving me the air I need to survive, if I ever broke confidentiality with a patient."

"They would -- you would -- what?" Anakin blinked at him, distracted from part of his irrational -- and he knew it was irrational, that was an improvement -- panic by Master Plo's words. He was pretty sure there was a full Dorin environment somewhere in the Temple, but that didn't mean Master Plo wouldn't have... that those weren't _really_ serious consequences. "But you're part of the Council."

He'd lose Ahsoka he'd lose his Master he'd lose his men he'd --

"I am Jedi… but I am Baran Do, as well. And I keep both disciplines, as best I can, within the restrictions of my own personal morality." Plo held his hand out to Anakin. "Right now, I see a member of my extended clan, one I have only just begun to know, hurting and in danger. Please allow me to help, and know that nothing you may hold hidden will be divulged, save by your wishes."

" **Nothing**?" Anakin repeated -- or demanded, he wasn't entirely certain -- as his fear over what Artoo could mean, the men, and his own irrational responses to Master Plo warred with his need to unburden himself and that same need to flee or run or fight. "Really? No matter what?"

"No matter what, my young friend. Allow me to aid you, to set your mind at rest from the war within it," Plo entreated, still holding his hand out to be taken.

Artoo crooned encouragingly, needing this to happen.

Anakin watched the big telepath warily for a few moments, afraid it was a trap, afraid he was lying... but Artoo wanted him to. Artoo said it was important. He swallowed hard, shoved down the certainty this was going to end terribly... and reached out to take the Master's hand.

Plo carefully closed his talons and drew Anakin to sit beside him, before beginning the fight for the Knight's sanity.

+++

Beside him, Boost sighed softly, even as Luke felt the Master -- and the bubbling, roiling froth of his father's fright -- recede, somehow. 

"Well," Boost said, "that's that, the Generals will be busy for a while. Should be fine to get out of here and go see our brothers now, sir."

"Are you sure?" Luke asked, not wanting to wind up further upsetting his father -- but these were pretty tight quarters.

Jag nodded. "Even I can tell they are tied up. C'mon, sir. It's not often we get a chance to fraternize outside our units. And we can take you to meet The Captain." He stood, technically in command over Boost, but… the Wolfpack sat outside the chain if a fight wasn't on.

"All right," Luke agreed, and made his way off the ship with them. He already knew, from Artoo, that 'The Captain' was his father's second (or first) in command, and had been part of the Rebellion, after. That was the kind of man he wanted to know, definitely.

To everyone but Master Plo, he was going to be Luke Lars -- at least it was a long way from the first time he'd used that as an alias. The galaxy had been kind of hot for 'Luke Skywalker, destroyer of the Death Star' after Hoth, and hiding under his aunt and uncle's name had been easiest.

"Lead on, Boost; you know Torrent better than I do," Jag said, letting the other man take point.

"Of course. Jesse said his Captain is on the bridge, but shift ends in twenty," Boost told him.

Luke smiled a little at the byplay, and tagged along behind them willingly. As they traveled through the ship, he saw a bewildering array of patterns of paint, haircuts and dye-jobs, tattoos on exposed faces, and other markers of the individuality these men poured into the Force.

A few greeted Jag and Boost, many looked at him and then straightened sharply, until he tucked his lightsaber back a bit so it was less visible. Shortly they were at the bridge, and Jag moved forward now.

"Captain, a moment?" he called once he was certain Rex was free.

Rex looked, momentary blink at which of Plo's men had come. He squashed the disappointment; of course Wolffe had remained in charge. Rex didn't know Jag as well; he'd been out of one of the other cities than the rest of them. Tipoca City had been the forerunner, so their first batches were a few weeks older than the other cities.

He strode over, sizing up the stranger. Dark clothes, not in any style that said uniform or organization… and the tunic was just barely hiding the hilt of a lightsaber. Rex's sharp eyes caught that and evaluated where they were standing. With his General so agitated… were they replacing his command staff? Was that why Ahsoka had been pulled to a task so suddenly with no warning?

Surely not. Cody would have had wind of it and warned him if so.

"Jag. Boost," he greeted his vod'e. "Sir?"

"Luke Lars," he introduced himself and reached out, hand tipped to easily shake or forearm-clasp as the other man might choose. "Altisian --" well, close enough, as he had an abundant urge to set the mainstream code on _fire_ " -- Jedi, and part of the crew that dealt with that one escape pod. My friends went to deal with a family situation, but Master Plo asked me to stick around and lend a hand, at least until you get your Commander back. It's good to meet you, Captain Rex."

This was new. Getting back up was not something Rex was familiar with, if it wasn’t General Kenobi, though they were used to going to help other units. To just get a second Jedi assigned was odd.

"Pleasure to meet you, sir. We have a state cabin we can put you in for the duration, in Fleet territory," Rex said, even though his general and commander had made a suite work for them much closer to the men.

"Boost and I are going to go wander until General Koon needs us," Jag said, "if you don’t mind? Been a while since I saw my brothers in Cascade."

As though Rex was going to deny that. "Of course, _vod_."

"If that's where you have room for me, sure," Luke agreed lightly. "Nice change from arguing with my twin sister over who gets the spare berth and who gets the couch, anyway." 

At least when Leia was sleeping on her own... which wasn't even half the time.

Jag took off with Boost and left Luke in Rex’s care. He turned and looked at the other officer available, signing for him to handle shift change, before turning back to Luke.

"This way, sir," he indicated to the other door that led to Fleet’s lift.

Luke nodded and followed willingly. Leia and Han were the ones conversation came easily to, he always had a little trouble with new people -- and he was _really_ unsure how to strike up a conversation with someone whose entire life had been either training for or the pursuit of war. War and -- "Is there _really_ no land on Kamino? It's _all_ water?"

"Yes sir," Rex said. "Water everywhere, and waves high enough to nearly hit the tops of the cities during the worst storms." He half-shrugged. "I've seen stranger worlds since leaving there."

Luke couldn't help an atavistic shudder at the thought of that much water, and didn't try to. "I expect strange is all in what you're not used to," he answered, "but I'm from the desert, so that hits me as really weird. Not... bad, just. Surreal. Which world are you thinking of, for stranger?"

"That one below us, with all the multicolor foliage all around," Rex said wryly. "The Commander blended right in at least."

"I'll have to get a better look," Luke said, "I've never been in this part of space before. Multicolor foliage?"

"All bright oranges and reds and yellows where we were. Even the ground cover was bright." Rex guided them toward the stateroom where he planned to park the Jedi. "As the Commander has orange skin, she tested the tactical advantage."

"I can see that," Luke said, thinking about the few minutes he'd spent with Commander Tano and her rather... relentless energy, as well as the vivid coloring. "The blue and white wasn't a problem?"

"Acted like a camo pattern. Apparently that's how it works on her own world too," Rex said. He was proud of her. She'd gotten within three meters of him without him noticing… out of his bucket. "So you got to meet her over on the _Victorium_?"

"For a little bit, yes," Luke agreed. "I liked her, but then, Leia says I like everybody until they give me a reason not to."

It was true enough that he really didn't mind the comment, or admitting to it.

"Only heard of the sibling Jedi in the Order. I'm told their species is almost always in pairs, though," Rex said, curious about 'twins' because it just seemed impossible. Then again, childbirth itself was terrifying to many brothers, who thought that bottles made much more sense. "Leia is this twin you mentioned?"

"Yes," Luke agreed with a flash of a smile, thinking of Leia, his brilliant, fierce, compassionate sister, "she is. Like I said, I'm not from the main Order... which sibling Jedi?"

"A pair of Mikkians, Generals Tiplar and Tiplee," he answered, liking that smile. There was something vaguely familiar about it.

"I know a Mikkian," Luke said, nodding quickly, understanding. Sakas was on Kes Dameron's Pathfinder crew, though she hadn't gone to Endor with them. Sick, if he remembered right. "Good woman."

They reached the right level, having passed a few Fleet members who minded their own business as they did. It was far different, more stratified maybe, than the way the men of the Army had behaved.

"Just about there. What items should I requisition for you? Clothing, special food needs, so on?"

Luke laughed, shaking his head. "Master Plo mentioned I should probably get something like proper Jedi robes, but they're cumbersome, and I'm far more used to a flightsuit." He studied Rex for a moment, thoughtful.

"Will need a change or two, though -- I was focused on what needed done, and didn't grab spares off the _Falcon_. Head in the clouds again," he said, amused. "You can't spend all your time in armor; could I borrow a set of whatever your fatigues look like? And I'm easy to feed, no known allergies and I'm really not picky."

Maybe he should have found room down in the lower sections for this one. Well, it was temporary. Rex got a good feel for the measurements by eyeball, and nodded. "I'll let my man know, and send up appropriate clothes.

"As to food, the Officers Mess is two levels down, follow the dark gray stripe along the walls. Or, once you have the ship map loaded, you can come down to any of the mess halls my men use, get to know them," Rex said.

"I'd like that," Luke answered with a quick, instant smile. "And I think I will. Thank you for the offer. Oh, is there a charging dock in the rooms? My astromech will eventually come find me once he's through with Master Plo and Knight Skywalker. I'd rather have him close, but if he needs to charge with the ship I'll... eventually... get him calmed down."

Rex paused, mid-stride, turned, looked at the Jedi. "I believe I am going to apologize, sir, for wasting your time leading you up here. But any Jedi willing to wear our clothing and to look after their astromech's feelings? Should be down in our country, not up here in Fleet quarters.

"If you don't mind the smaller accommodations, we have an unused officer's cabin next to mine, because we don't have a Clone Commander, and my CMO refuses to leave the barracks." That was, a two-part thing, Rex knew, as Kix tended to sleep in his office a lot, as well as not wanting to upset things with Jesse.

Luke laughed, shaking his head with a cheerful grin. He'd been right in that a state cabin in Fleet quarters had been 'get the newcomer away from my people' distancing. He couldn't blame the Captain for that, but it was nice that it hadn't taken much to overcome it. Nice... but sad, too. "Small really won't bother me, it's still likely to be bigger than the spare berth on the _Falcon_. And it's your own time you've spent, not mine -- I'm just here to help. Lead the way back, Captain, and thank you."

"Right this way… secondary lift system that connects down to the low decks." Rex lead on, and decided, even with his usual jaundice on new people, he rather liked this man.

+++

Plo Koon was upright and sitting with changed filters, waiting for Anakin to awaken. His thoughts tumbled over the near failure he had been part of the reasons for, and vowed to give all his efforts back to the dream he and his creche-mates had possessed. The Order must change, must acknowledge the ties that all sentient beings needed to be whole and healthy.

Slowly, Anakin found his way back to consciousness... and his head pillowed on one rock-hard, warm thigh under Jedi robes. Master Plo. He looked up, slowly, rubbing at his eyes with his left hand to clear them of the crusted misery, and tried to find a smile somewhere. "I... hi?"

"Hello, my young friend," Plo said warmly. "More yourself, I hope?" He reached down and carded talons through mussed hair gently.

That... that felt really good, and Anakin leaned into it, careful of the tips. "I... yeah. I think so. I'm... well, you know." Probably better than he did himself, actually. Master Plo had been inside his mind, fighting away the compulsions, the little nudges towards the Dark Side right alongside with him. He'd seen... everything. Including the flares of fury Anakin was too numb for right now, but knew were going to be back.

He didn't think it was unreasonable to be furious that the man he'd considered his best friend outside the Order had been violating his mind since he was a youngling, had always, **always** had that kind of ulterior motive. But neither did Master Plo, thank Force.

"How... how did Artoo wind up back in time, and... what in _haran_ are we going to **do** , Master?"

"Hmm, well. The Force brought Artoo and his family here/now, so that is as inscrutable as ever," Plo told him, faint touch of amusement in his voice. "As to what? Three of them, and Threepio, have gone with Kit to work with the Senate and Council to undermine and expose the man for what he is.

"You need not worry on that just now. You have young Luke to get to know, and let him assist you while Ahsoka is gone to Kamino. The Senators and the Council members have been, or will be, warned that no action can happen until all of our men are safe from the plan for them."

"Right," Anakin said, dragging what bits Master Plo had told him while they worked on his mind -- sometimes he'd needed pulled away from rage -- back into focus.

Children. He and Padmé had had... children. That from what Master Plo could tell had grown up without them. Without _either_ of them. "That's... how do I -- you said he's my age?"

"He seems to be," Plo agreed. "Or close enough. I suggest befriending," he added. "As, with any luck, the Force will see us to actually having your ik'aad to raise for ourselves once we end the threat."

He meant that. He wanted a new generation. He wanted all of his extended clan to grow and lose the horrors in the strength of new lives.

Anakin nodded... though he hadn't been any good at making friends since he was in Mos Espa. He'd never been able to relate to any of the Initiates, and few of the Padawans. Aayla and Lissarkh were about it. But maybe... maybe this would be different. Luke wouldn't have been raised with everything that had made the Temple younglings so difficult for him. Where _had_ his son grown up?

"Yeah. Though I'm not about to depend on luck."

Plo chuckled at that. "You humans are less… decisive about matters of procreation than many other species. It makes your numeric advantage and system spread baffling to us." He scritched along Anakin's scalp gently. "Then again, I grew up with three of you, and Noorians are more like humans than not… and I do not understand your species in the least."

There was a gentle teasing air to the words, indicating that Plo loved the parts that were mysterious to him.

Anakin did laugh quietly, still leaning into the so-gentle talons. "I'm pretty sure that's true of any species, that all the rest are baffling. I... probably ought to get up and eat something, huh?"

"Indeed. Boost thought to bring me a shake, stated that… Fives? Is on guard, or trading with his vod, Echo. But Boost was unaware of your choices on food, and I know some find it very difficult to eat after such psychic surgery."

Plo slowly moved his hand away though, so that Anakin could sit up and start equalizing.

Anakin nodded. Fives was a good choice, really, and had probably demanded the right. Rex had the whole legion to worry about, without much in the way of backup with him down and Ahsoka away. He sat up, elbows on knees and chin in his hands, and stayed that way for a bit. "I can generally eat anything, and I'm not the one that just forgets to, either."

"Obi-Wan got that honestly," Plo defended swiftly. "Trying to keep up with Qui was rough on him, and once Tahl was gone… well. Less fussing happened." Plo did stand to shake out the stiffness of staying still so long.

Anakin got to his feet, his head only swimming a little, and after a moment's thought, reached to hug Master Plo, leaning his head against the big man's shoulder.

Plo held him there, humming lightly. "Micah and I should have kept a better eye there," he said. "But we both had the Council, and Bultar, with Lissarkh growing up as well." He sighed softly. "Sometimes, we do scoop out more rock than can be shaped."

Anakin had to think about that idiom, then nodded. He'd forgotten, almost, how comforting solid physical contact was, but Master Plo was a really good reminder. More hugs, for more people, definitely. "People get busy. And grief... well. Is hard. Thank you, Master. For... everything."

"I wish I had done better by you all along, but… we move forward stronger now," the elder Jedi said. "Come; I should find my two sons and return to Wolffe."

"Yeah," Anakin agreed, and let go with a soft sigh. A meal and clean robes and then he could go find this grown-up son of his and... try to make friends.

Plo walked beside him, a companion, not a stern authority figure. As they walked, he nudged Jag and Boost alike to wrap up their visit, not wishing to go wandering through Anakin's ship when his own was close at hand.

Of course, as soon as they actually exited the room, both Echo and Fives were there, snapping to attention for them.

"Sirs!" came in unison.

"As you were, you two," Anakin told them affectionately. "I'm headed to the nearest mess, and I need to eat about like Ahsoka starting a growth spurt."

"Yes, sir," Fives said, as the pair moved to be his escort.

"I will wait here for my sons," Plo said, "but may the Force be with you, Anakin."

"And you, Master Plo," Anakin answered, smiling at him before he headed for that meal. A corridor away, he asked, "What time _is_ it? I know I was out for a while."

Echo supplied the ship time and galactic time for him, indicating he'd missed an entire day.

"Everything is running smooth," Fives assured him. "The new Jedi, Luke Lars? Captain decided it would be best for him to handle Waterfall, as Cascade is still smarting and they took heavy casualties so should be on standby."

Lars. Clever, but... if he knew to use that name -- surely _not_ , no one would really have... What was he thinking. These were most likely Jedi he was talking about.

Wait. Rex had decided to integrate Luke into the legion without even waiting to talk to him? His son must have made a hell of an impression. "Good call," he nodded understanding and acceptance. "How's that going so far?"

"Good. It freed the Captain up to worry about everyone, gives Appo a little more experience trying to handle Torrent, and … well, Cascade is going to have something to prove when we hit another campaign," Fives admitted, having spent some time with the men he was covering while Ahsoka was gone.

"They are not handling that they lost the Commander for a bit, and now she is gone," Echo told Anakin.

"She'll be back soon," Anakin said, and meant it. "She's on Kamino by now, and Master Plo was pretty sure Master Ti would send her back."

He made himself a note to go drop in on Cascade once he'd eaten, but he was definitely relieved to hear that Luke was doing well with Waterfall. They stepped into the mess, he barked an immediate 'As you were' as soon as he was in, and headed to grab food.

He was probably going to fall short of Ahsoka's record, but not by as much as usual. More than a day without eating, and that after a lot of really powerful stress.. yeah.

Fives and Echo stayed with him, eating a little out of their hoarded rations in their utility pouches, since it was not yet their meal draw.

The absolute wave of relief that hit Anakin as the men saw him actually eating was less distant, more immediate, and he realized that the manipulations had buffered him from the fullness of his men's emotions.

He promptly added that to his list of reasons he completely hated the man that had been trying to make him Fall. They were his men, his responsibility, his friends... and keeping them from him was unforgivable. He lifted a hand at the nearest brother with a moment's smile, and returned to wrapping himself around the food.

Fives went back for another tray for him with a shake of his head, and Anakin thanked him with a hand against his wrist for a moment and a smile.

"Weren't kidding, sir," Echo said with faint surprise at the appetite. "Good thing we did a bit of hunting before we lifted off the planet?" he added.

"Hoping she gets back to take advantage of that; the shinies won't know how to care for her," Fives answered in a low voice, but he was glad when a vod sitting down meant he had to sit a little closer to his general.

"Right there with you, Fives," Anakin agreed, between bites, "and yeah, Echo. Really good thing."

Fives' company was a steady, solid warmth that helped against the lingering numbness. Echo's, too, but Fives' was... different. He'd puzzle at that once he was more settled.

The pair settled in as his guards and caretakers, using looks and slight motions to keep those few brothers who might have approached from doing so, all very subtly. They had no idea what had happened, but they knew their general needed time to adapt, to be steady and actually settled.

Eventually, Anakin felt more himself and went to get cleaned up. He was glad that Master Fisto wasn't here; he knew he reeked.

The pair stayed with him all the way to his quarters, before agreeing they had somewhere else to be at the almost teasing question from Anakin. He took advantage of the full water tanks to actually shower, and tried to let the misery of the psychic tampering leave with the run off.

+++

A discreet inquiry through Rex told him that Luke, and the elder Artoo, were actually in Waterfall's territory. Rex had sounded relieved, and the noise behind him was the bridge, verifying to Anakin that he had managed to get his sense of where people were straight again.

When he thought about it, he realized he could have just extended a feeler, as there was a brighter, warmer place down in their second company's space. He headed that way, actually using lifts and not just the shafts, to go meet his adult son.

Luke had spent the day-and-some since Rex had decided he could actually be trusted with some of his brothers digging into what was going on with Waterfall Company with its officers and non-coms. Thankfully, it was running better than Rogue Squadron most of the time, and didn't need much. He needed to get his head around GAR doctrine, so he was parked half in the open in Waterfall's territory devouring manuals when the small sun in Force yanked for his attention. He lifted his head, saw the lift door come green and start opening, and got up, sticking a marker in the manual for later, and...

...Biggs would absolutely have whistled. The thought was a moment's quiet ache. Tall, broad-shouldered, and absolutely, utterly confident in himself by the walk. Hair a little darker than his own, eyes -- well, now he knew where he'd gotten his eyes, they were looking right back at him -- a bright blue, and a jawline that looked almost uncomfortably familiar.

"Knight Skywalker," he said aloud, as his father came to a stop inside a meter away, smiling with the curious delight he couldn't push away. This was his father before everything... what was he really like? "Pleasure to meet you."

"Knight Lars, a surprising pleasure to meet you as well," Anakin said, managing to not trip over things too much.

This was his son? Small like Padmé, but Anakin was betting Luke was as deceptively strong as she was. He was brilliant inside the Force, even attempting to shield. The hair wasn't quite as dark as his own, but Anakin could see wisps of blond still in it, a relic of Tatooine's suns.

He was in garrison duty uniform… and Anakin almost smiled at him for that.

"Thank you," he added at last, and he didn't just mean the help aboard his ship.

Luke could feel that he meant a lot of things by that thank you. It wasn't just Grievous, or just helping here... but then again, he'd been part, if a small one, of literally saving his father's psyche. "It's all been the right thing to do. But you're welcome."

He put out a hand to shake -- or forearm to grasp -- to finish saying hello.

Anakin met the arm with a firm grasp of his own, though it had the care of knowing that prosthetic could crush bone.

"Care to go talk somewhere, or are you too deep into regs and manuals?" Anakin invited, looking at what Luke had been working on.

"No, I can finish later," Luke answered, amused by their matching careful grips -- his father had already lost one hand? Well, war -- even as he shook his head. "Where should we head?"

" _Twilight_ 's closer than quarters," Anakin said. That would let him check in on _his_ Artoo. "And I have a few repairs to make after this last fight. We wound up using her to get to a squad that got trapped."

Luke grinned brightly at that, nodding. "Sure, that sounds great. Lead the way."

Time with this man, getting to know each other, and a ship to work on? Assuming he'd get to help, at least. Things didn't get much better. Artoo, to his slight surprise, waved one grasping arm for a moment and stayed where he was, linked with the fighter they'd moved to Waterfall's bay.

Anakin did, though he took time to grasp shoulders with the men he passed, letting them know he was fine. He greeted the men they passed on the way down, all the way to his ship. Passing Tok had included a reassurance that Commander Tano was coming back, and could he spread that around.

Finally, they were in the ship, and that meant going to Artoo… who immediately bumped into his legs.

[FORCE THINGS!] he beeped emphatically, having gotten the strangest briefing via an encrypted set of messages.

Luke chuckled quietly. "That says a lot, Artoo, yeah."

Artoo sized him up then. He was quick to look back at Anakin, and make a skeptical noise. [Reproduction model is good?] he asked, making Anakin laugh and drop carelessly on the deck beside him.

"Yeah, Artoo. He's good. Brought him here to be able to talk, because we're not telling our men just yet. The truth needs to wait a bit."

"The truth is pretty unbelievable," Luke said, when he could stop laughing at Artoo's skeptical assessment and his father's response. "So yeah, sorta needs to wait. But... hi, dad. I'm... really glad to see you _as_ you. The man I was told about."

Anakin darkened and the pressure of that rage, the raw strength of it hovered just on the edge of Luke's perceptions. But it was… banked. Anakin had its leash now, not the other way around.

"I'm sorry you ever knew me any other way," he said firmly. "Let's change that. The men would say you are _aliit_ , and honestly? Clan is going to be the best way to describe us all. Sorry, Luke, but you just inherited hundreds of uncles and a squadron of aunts." Anakin made himself focus on the bright side of it all.

Artoo beeped an affirmative to that, and went back to working on the control panel he used to aid Anakin with piloting.

"The uncles, I think I understand," Luke said with a glance towards the hatch and most of the ship, "but... a squadron of aunts?" _Aliit_ , he repeated quietly to himself, 'clan'. Yes. That worked for him. "It sounds good, though. I... like them. They're very... passionately alive."

Anakin nodded fiercely to that last. "Yeah, they are," he breathed, soaking in his men's vital presence, so strong and reassuring. "As to the aunts… Padmé has several women who still work with her, on her staff, and she considers them all family, after going through two terms as queen and this one as Senator," he pointed out.

Luke dropped his eyes, studying his hands for a second, before he looked back up at his own eyes across the room. "I... don't actually know much about my -- our -- mother. Leia says she remembers her a little, but... I don't. And B -- I was never told who she was, until Master Plo. I still don't know much. Would you tell me about her?"

Anakin got a wry smile on his face. He had been slightly surprised to learn Master Plo had figured out he and Padmé were together before the dive into his head, and had been showing courtesy by not remarking on it or drawing attention to it.

The expression shifted, skipping over the anger that Luke had never known the amazing woman that was his mother, before he launched into his favorite subject: talking about her.

Luke drank up every word, getting impressions of his mother from a man that was... blatantly, completely, and utterly in love with her. That.. was something to see, given, well... Vader's quiet, lethal menace and his father's ghost's quiet, reserved mien.

Eventually, though, he wound down, and his hand went into the back of his hair, color touching his cheekbones. He opened his mouth again, probably to apologize from the look on his face, and Luke shook his head.

"No... don't. _Thank_ you. I'm excited to get to meet her. What would you like to know?"

"Was… mother's step-son good to you? Is your aunt the girl that was there the one time I met him? Did you know the man Mother married?" Anakin wanted to know how Luke had grown up more than the details of life facing the Sith puppet Anakin had become. "What did you do there? Please don't tell me pod-racing."

Mother's step-son. Well, Uncle Owen had said they didn't know each other well, Luke remembered.

"Uncle Owen was a good man, and he loved me," Luke answered, instant. One of his biggest regrets was that his last months with his uncle had been so tense because he'd wanted to get away, and his uncle had wanted to protect him. "So did my aunt. Her name was Beru, she was a Whitesun... is she who you met?" He got a nod, and went on. "Well then, yeah. And no... I never got to meet Grandfather Cliegg. He had a heart-attack a couple of years after -- "

He cut himself off, and reached for his father's hand. "Well. After. Years before Ben -- Obi-Wan -- took me to them."

Anakin's mouth thinned into a dangerous line, before he looked down, having let Luke touch him, and he weighed that.

"He did seem to love her. And… he freed her." Anakin drew in a long, deep breath. Revisiting what he'd done, seeing more of it than he had remembered left him raw and wounded. But Master Plo had muted that back into the past, while helping Anakin pull the good memories of his mother forward, smothering those last moments with her in the wealth of her love. "Mom was all I had, as a boy.

"Well, until I built Threepio. But I hadn't really finished him, and he wasn't great company while I was tinkering on his personality."

"Is that why Threepio's so... strange?" Luke asked, blinking in surprise. "I mean, he's a wonderful friend, and he's saved my life a couple of times, but... he's very... fussy."

Anakin snorted. "Yeah, he is. I was building him for Mom, so she'd never be alone when she was working. Just never could get him quite finished enough. Started when I was seven."

"When did you stop working on him?" he replied, curious, slowly pulling his hand back now that that dangerous moment had passed. "Or did you?"

"When I left with Master Qui-Gon. I was nine, almost ten maybe? My Name Day is not, probably, the day I was born, so it's hard to know for certain. Mom lost track of the calendar back then," Anakin said. "But yeah, I left him half unplated, but Mom decided to finish him.

"He was there… that day." Anakin's voice got thick with grief. "I knew it was bad when Threepio decided not to talk, to take me inside to meet the others."

Luke nodded in sudden, complete, half-horrified understanding. When Threepio decided he couldn't explain something, or shouldn't... it was always very, very bad. "Yeah... that would do it," he agreed softly. "Nine, and Threepio's as amazing as he is? I'm impressed. 'Master Qui-Gon'?"

Anakin shook his head at that, embarrassed smile at the praise that Luke knew had graced his own face a few times.

"Threepio was designed to learn," Anakin said, downplaying his part in that droid's uniqueness. "Master Qui-Gon is the Jedi that found me. He was Obi-Wan's master, but he was killed on Naboo a couple of days later."

All he had ever known, he had left behind for that man. Then he had lost him, which did not hurt near as much as slowly realizing how much it had wrecked Obi-Wan.

"That has to have been... terrifying," Luke said, reading his expression and adding what he knew about where his grandmother had come from, how Grandfather had found her. "I didn't know he had a teacher that wasn't Yoda."

He had... very complicated feelings... about the ancient Master, these days.

Anakin glowered at the mention of that Jedi. "He teaches everyone, so they all kind of claim him? But he hasn't had a padawan since my great-grandmaster, the Sith pain in the shebs we are fighting on the Seppie side of things." Anakin flexed his mechanical hand. "The man that made this necessary, actually."

Luke glanced at the creak of metal inside the glove, and shook his head. "Okay, that's a family tradition that needs to _stop_ ," he said, and flipped open the inner-wrist panel that let him access a bunch of the systems his hand ran on, turning it towards his father. "Immediately."

Anakin stared at the circuitry and moved a little closer. "Okay, they told me I would lose sensitivity if I took the pseudoflesh, and I was on Naboo!" he said, still amazed at their medical ability. He then took his glove off to show his own hand.

"Twenty years more of developments? And I was on one of the most advanced medical frigates in the galaxy when I got mine," Luke answered, his eyes caught by the difference in their prosthetics. His father's was elegant, but so blatantly artificial, a masterpiece of shining alloys that... probably made him incredibly uncomfortable, given the glove. "I couldn't begin to tell you where the medical droid came from, though. It's as sensitive as my own skin ever was... maybe more, sometimes."

"Huh. Might need to introduce you to the Naboo Medical College, see if they can reverse engineer that for the men who have had replacements done," Anakin said, thinking of them, not himself. "Some of them are very self-conscious of the prosthetics."

"Sure, if it'll help people," Luke agreed immediately, "I don't mind it being poked at for a good reason. Now the couple of months it had a blaster-hole through it and I was having to run the fingers on the secondary relays, _then_ I kept a glove on."

"Only sensible, keep it clear of debris," Anakin said. "Artoo is a good help -- wait, you probably already know that. Or do you? Does he help you mod it?"

"Oh yeah. Any time I want to mess with it, he's right there with me," Luke agreed with a flash of a grin again. "It'd be easier if it wasn't under all the synthflesh, but I like that it passes."

Anakin sat back and relaxed a little more. "Hate that you had to learn that, but… Artoo takes care of those he likes. The whole unit thinks he is a good luck droid. He's officially the exception to my Chief Medic's tat. 'The only good droid is a dead droid' didn't really fly well with Artoo, until he realized it's because Kix has touched and held more of our dying than anyone else."

"No, I can't see that going over well with Artoo... but... I can see Kix's point, too, about those things you were fighting. And I know Artoo does, he's the best. He's always doing something to help, it's just sometimes... subtle. And sometimes it's not subtle at all. I don't ever want to find out what my life would be like without him."

"Me either!" Anakin said. "When he and Threepio decided to 'exchange organics', it was the best for us all!"

Luke arched a brow. "Okay, this I _have_ to hear in more detail... please?"

Anakin laughed. "So your mother and I," he began, amazed at how easy it was getting to say it that way, "got married while I was still guarding her, after my arm, after Geonosis, on Naboo. The droids were there to witness… and they decided that the ceremony was as much about them exchanging humans as us getting married.

"And it did make sense."

"Because you built Threepio, and Artoo was... hers?" Luke checked, got a nod, and started laughing. "Since she's a politician, I guess a protocol droid would make good sense, and you're a pilot, so..."

"An astromech makes sense. And he's hers in the same way I am; he worships her." Anakin shrugged. "He's a Freed Droid of Naboo. Attached himself to her retinue during that first reign, after being emancipated, and never left her."

"They do that? _Excellent_. Is there some way to get my Artoo recognized the same way? I've had to have an... argument... or two with people about leaving. him. alone. Not here! But in a couple of Alliance bases." Luke had opinions about those particular yardmasters, and didn't particularly want to be around them again. Artoo was his friend and partner and it wasn't right to just... destroy... someone like that.

Anakin nodded. "With his memories unlocked, he should have the code embedded in his I.D. chip again, but I'll double check him.

"So, other than protecting your Artoo, is there anything else you need to settle in? I know Rex looked into getting you settled, and he seems to have decided he likes you, but feel free to ask for things. I learned with Ahsoka that sometimes people won't, unless they're told they can."

Luke laughed, shaking his head. "If it can't fit in an X-Wing, I don't really need it," he answered cheerfully. "We've spent so long on the move, even space like the officer's cabin Rex tucked me into is a luxury. Half the time, I was hot-bunking on a converted MC80 with one of my squadron -- we didn't have room for anything else.

"I like him. I'm not entirely sure why just asking for a spare set of clothes convinced him he didn't need to put me in state quarters in Fleet territory, but I'm glad. I like it down here." 

Anakin frowned, then took in what he was wearing, again. "Did you ask for their uniform?" he questioned, pretty sure he was right.

"Well, yeah? I mean, this's an active warship in a hot zone, nobody has time to fabricate a copy of my usual stuff, and they're a little bigger than I am, so..." Luke shrugged one shoulder. "Easy solution, as long as it didn't offend anyone."

"No. It made Rex realize you did see them as human, if you are willing to wear their clothes," Anakin told him. "And Cree -- he's the quartermaster now -- will fabricate anything anyone asks for if he's got material, to be honest. He gets bored making equipment."

"Maybe once I've been around a ten-day or so, met him and spent some time with them, I'll ask," Luke said to the last, then returned to the first. "I -- why _wouldn't_ I? They _are_."

"They are," Anakin said firmly. "The Republic idiots that can't see that… well. They are reminders that the Seppies had some real reasons, the ones that were just for leaving, not invading."

"I'm still trying to get my head around all of that," Luke admitted. "I knew a bunch of ex-Separatists, but they and the Republic loyalists tended to just... not argue about the past when we were trying to salvage a future."

"Makes sense, I think," Anakin said. "Master Mundi will probably point his agents at whispering in ears about common enemies," he added, after thinking about it.

"Master Mundi?" Luke asked, curious as ever. "Spies and propaganda, I'm guessing, from the whispering bit, but..."

Anakin nodded. "He's been over the Jedi Sentinels since I came to the Temple. They're the ones that do the listening and the investigating. Consulars work with diplomats and politicians. Guardians do too, but they are protectors as versus negotiators.

"There's overlap; Obi-Wan and I are kind of a blend of the latter two. I've heard Master Secura say she thinks Ahsoka will go Sentinel, and she is probably not wrong; my padawan is a good huntress, to use her own terms."

"Sentinel, Consular, Guardian," Luke repeated, thoughtful and soft. "They're good titles.. and it's something I never would have known. I'm looking forward to getting to know Ahsoka better -- Master Plo sent her off in a hurry, but I liked her a lot."

That got a solid smile, a proud one, and Luke could feel that in the Force. "I don't really want to know anyone that Ahsoka takes a dislike to. And she's got an easy way of dealing with people I will never have.

"We may have had a rocky start, but she is the best damned thing the Order ever did for me."

Luke nodded, as the feel of that warm, proud smile rippled softly through the Force and made him smile in return. His father loved the girl, Chewie liked and respected her... yeah, he couldn't wait to really meet her. "Yeah?" he asked, curious.

"Normally, a Knight, or a Master, chooses their own padawan," Anakin explained. "Obi-Wan and Master Yoda conspired to assign me one, though.

"I just found out that Master Plo never knew about it, and as her Finder he should have been asked. But anyway, they picked Ahsoka, sent her to me with a message. And… I didn't want a padawan. Like, massively a lot did not want! But she kept up with me through a pretty rough first, second, and then third mission in just a couple of days.

"She said I was stuck with her, early on, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"And I thought I wanted to be able to drop him off my foot one more time _before_ ," Luke muttered, his eyes narrowing. That was no way to establish a trusting, caring bond. It seemed like it had worked this time, but that didn't excuse messing around with a tradition like that. It could have ended so badly for both of them.

Maybe had.

What would losing someone he loved have done to his father, with all the manipulations in his mind? "I'm glad it worked."

Anakin nodded fiercely. At all of it. Even things unsaid. Knowing Ahsoka had Seen him when she was young had not helped soothe his issues with Yoda over it, other than to be surprised the ancient one had paid attention.

"Master Plo said the Order needed lots of work even when he was young, that he lost track of that as they grew up and separated a little. But he is set on fixing it for us, and the others that have found Attachments to be their anchors in this haran we live in."

"Well, good," Luke said, "I'm glad someone as senior as he seems to be recognizes what took... a catastrophe... for Master Yoda to see. That will make things easier, hopefully, at least a little."

"Yeah, I hope so," Anakin said. "He said he was going to go see Obi-Wan and double check there were no compulsions there, once he's had time with his men again."

"I hadn't even... considered that," Luke said, blinking several times, slowly. "But it sounds like it wouldn't be impossible, by a long shot. Which is more than a little frightening to me."

"So… you knew him? A little?" Anakin probed, to see if he remembered that little piece of the information correctly. Plo had not told him much, but enough to help ground him, as they neared the end of the fight for his mind.

"A little," Luke agreed, nodding as he looked back into the past thoughtfully. "When I was a little kid, I remember him coming to the homestead -- he brought the best little mechanical toys, and bantha milk and wool. He'd play with me, and talk to Aunt Beru. As I got older... well, I was up late and overheard a fight between him and Uncle Owen. Uncle blamed him for... your death, and Grandmother's.

"After that, he almost never came, and I saw him even less. But sometimes there was just suddenly... more food. And then Artoo came off a jawa sandcrawler and conned me into taking off his restraining bolt and... everything changed."

Anakin hung his head. It wasn't really Obi-Wan's fault Mom had died, except at a tangent. The visions had been so vague. But he had been dismissive.

"He had to con you into it, huh? I've seen him take those off himself by banging them against a strut," Anakin chose to say rather than touch the sarlaac of feelings about his master and his mother's death.

Luke leaned forward and took his father's hand again, hoping it would help. Whatever that was, whyever Uncle Owen had blamed Ben... it was obviously a painful mess. "He decided to con me into it, anyway. He probably could've done it himself, but he had this easy mark, I guess."

That got a laugh. "Probably. Less shocking if someone else does it." Anakin threw off the dark; he didn't need that, not now. "Alright, Luke… let's see if you can help me out with my ship, since my padawan scooted off on a secret mission."

"Sure," Luke agreed. "She can't be any pickier than the _Falcon_ , and I've gotten good with her! ...finally."

"If that ship is put together like this one, I'm looking forward to meeting her captain," Anakin said, before pushing up to get to work.

+++

The Force had been in such... tumult, that was the only word for it... for what Qui-Gon thought had been days that he had been unable to even attempt reaching the physical world. The sheer chaos would have ripped what fragile existence he still had apart. This meant he was worried. As the storm calmed, as though the galaxy itself was taking a deep breath, Qui-Gon went to check on his Foundling -- when major events happened, Anakin was normally at their core.

He was surprised to see Anakin genuinely smiling, ankle hooked in part of the _Twilight's_ exterior plating, upper body hanging down from that hold and out into space, and having a rapid-fire conversation with another young man, this one on a ladder to get to almost the same place. A totally unfamiliar young man, but Anakin looked as though he was perfectly comfortable.

That. Wasn't normal. One of his greater regrets was that no one had been able to help Anakin make friends in the Temple, how quickly that open, generous, giving boy had turned into a reserved, cautious young man whose heart was dangerous when it escaped his control in any fashion.

Who was this stranger, that Anakin seemed genuinely warm to him?

He frowned to himself, drifting closer, and the curiosity escaped his lips. "Who are you?"

Luke had been feeling eyes on him for a little while, but a look around hadn't shown him anyone. The voice rippling the Force, though, made him jerk, his hand tightening on the ladder frame as he looked around again. That wasn't a voice he knew, at all, and besides Ben and Yoda were _alive_.

So who -- "Where are _you_?" he replied, "That I can hear you, but not see you?"

"Huh?" Anakin asked, scanning around intently for a speaker he hadn't heard.

"You can hear me? You really do hear my voice?" Qui-Gon asked incredulously.

"Just a sec," Luke said to Anakin, before he focused on the rippling feel of the Force, the presence and the voice that was faint, but certainly audible... why hadn't Anakin heard it? It'd come from sort of... that way, so he shifted to look there. "Of course I hear you, whoever you are... why wouldn't I?"

"Well no one else does. Except Master Yoda. And he pretends not to, probably for fear people would find him to be senile at last," Qui-Gon said with some irritation. "I've been trying! Believe me, there are many people I wish to give a solid piece of my mind to!"

Anakin focused in the same area his son was looking… and was that an eddy in the Force itself? Maybe he was seeing things.

Luke snorted, shaking his head as he listened to the cadence of the voice. It was a lot like Ben's, but... a little deeper? More resonant. "I'm not sure he's _not_ senile, but what do you mean nobody else can hear you? It's not that hard. You're not exactly quiet... but _who_ are you?"

Not that there was much he could do against a spirit, but if this was an enemy, at least he'd know to be alert and keep his mouth shut.

"Sorry, young one." Qui-Gon cleared his throat at the agreement on Yoda. "My name is Qui-Gon Jinn, and I would very much love to know who you are that Ani is already so taken with you."

"I can't hear anything, but the Force is odd over there," Anakin told Luke.

The Master that had found his father, and then died. The one that had been Ben's teacher. Oh.

Wow.

Luke nodded slowly, and made a thoughtful noise, tapping his fingers on the ladder. He looked back and forth from the spot the voice was back to his father's eyes. "Yeah, I know, it's... distorted, like it always is when one of the Force Ghosts comes, but I don't understand why I can't _see_ him. Let me see if I can... help you hear, at least."

He traded hands on the ladder, taking his father's natural hand with his own, and trying to share the slightly altered mental state that he'd been in when he started seeing Ben. "Say something else, Master," he encouraged.

"Anakin? Can you hear me, Ani?" Qui-Gon asked in a gentle, low rumble… and Anakin jerked his head as he looked, intent on actually seeing his Finder.

"Master?!"

Luke smiled in satisfaction, but held on, trying to be a bridge, to help his father have a connection again -- having Ben back, even just in moments, had been worth the world to him. "There," he said, soft. "I... don't know why we can't see him, but at least you can hear now."

"I'm here, Ani, careful," Qui-Gon answered, relief and joy lighting in him that his Foundling could hear him this time. "Don't twist about so much you fall. And you can't see me because I didn't get to finish learning how to do this."

"You… you did this on purpose?" Anakin asked. "I thought the whole 'one with the Force' thing was, I dunno, Code?" Not, he amended in his head, that he approved of most things in the Jedi Code interpretations.

"I didn't want to leave Plo alone," Qui-Gon answered, smiling at the question, at Anakin's... mouth-twisted wry... skepticism. "And I am certainly one with the Force now. Just... a bit differently than most. But Plo is the _most_ closed off to me, it's very frustrating."

Anakin realized he could, in that moment, do something to repay some of the kindness that Plo had given him in soothing all the pain of his ravaged mind. "I'll fix that, Master Qui-Gon. I promise," he said with the earnestness of a child that was convincing everyone to go along with his madcap plan to pod-race them to freedom.

"Thank you, Ani," Qui-Gon answered, smiling to see that earnest, open intensity again. "I would very much appreciate that. I've hated seeing him so isolated."

That look from his father, the utter focus and openness, was... something to consider, Luke thought. It was like the look he got about Padmé, a near-complete devotion.

"What about Obi-Wan? Can I make him pay attention? Or would it just hurt him more, Master?" Anakin asked, aware that his master had never stopped grieving, even if he pretended he never had been to begin with.

"I... don't know which way that would go, Ani," Qui-Gon answered honestly. "I want to talk to him, to apologize for everything I never got the chance to say, but he is... well. Himself."

Anakin snorted at that. "You said a mouthful, Master. We'll see, when I talk to Master Plo. He's supposed to be checking up on him and how his head works."

"Oh?" Qui-Gon asked, startled. "I... haven't been able to see what's been going on here in... I think a few days. The Force was... turbulent."

"That would probably be my fault?" Luke volunteered. "And I never did answer you. Call me Luke?"

"The Force decided to kriff the Sith plans, and I'm not going back into that, Master Qui-Gon," Anakin said. "It's been rough, and I don't want to lose the shielding I managed to put back in."

"Of course, Ani," Qui-Gon soothed. "I am... relieved to hear it is something that _tampered_ with their plots, rather than some new horror of theirs. And more relieved to see you safe. Hello, Luke. You have my... very great thanks."

Luke shrugged, smiling a little. "No problem. It's strange not to see you, though."

"Well, if Anakin can retrieve a data pad from our quarters in due time, I may be able to do something about that," Qui-Gon said. "I have had precious little success manipulating things, beyond making small clatters to warn people or startle droids."

"You! You're the one that makes half my men think the 212th are going crazy!" Anakin said.

"The 212th are not crazy; they have excellent situational awareness," Qui-Gon replied, warmly enough. "I do what I can."

"Huh?" Luke asked, cocking his head.

Anakin half-shrugged, a ludicrous thing from his current position. "The 212th has several members who avoided ambushes through different campaigns because they were certain a ghost was watching out for them.

"It was becoming something of a legend telling, because, well, they are 'Ghost' Company at the core."

"Because my padawan is entirely too good at finding subtle ways to torment himself," Qui-Gon muttered unhappily. "And they do have, when I can."

Anakin scowled. "He really is. But okay, Master. I'll get it as soon as they fumigate the Senate of the Sith," he said, eyes sparking a moment before he made himself go back to prodding his ship. He could not get angry, had to keep it tightly contained. "Master Kit is on top of that part," he remembered to say.

"Thank you, Ani," Qui-Gon answered. "Oh... it's so good to have anyone _hear_ me. I'm very proud of you, my foundling, and that padawan of yours is a delight."

He wanted to know what had happened in detail, but he wasn't about to risk Anakin's fragile, obviously hard-won composure by asking.

That made Anakin beam widely. "She really is!" he answered, even though the idea of Master Qui-Gon being proud of him made his emotions itch and want to be uncomfortable. He'd done things --

\-- No. Stop. Just work on the ship.

"Hard to believe that she's the tiny half-armful Plo first introduced me to," Qui-Gon said, amused... and worried about what he'd done to unsettle Ani again.

"I am glad you met her, before," Anakin said. "And when he showed me that image, of her, I was surprised. I mean, I've seen her pull the big-eyes thing _now_ , but back then, I think it would have been devastating!"

"I... expect it would have," Qui-Gon agreed, after a moment to consider that cheerful little mite he'd met unhappy and looking at him to fix it or otherwise help, "yes."

"So, what you are both saying is that I should look out when she gets back and her eyes get big and round?" Luke asked, holding the part in place for his father.

"She's either scamming you or up to something," Anakin agreed with that sentiment.

"Or both," Qui-Gon said, his tone softly wry. "Yes." As he spoke, he felt his grasp on the material starting to slip from him, the odd exhaustion of reaching through tugging at him. "I... I'm getting tired, Ani. Luke."

"We'll be listening for you, Master," Anakin said. "And we'll convince Master Plo to hear you too."

"I'll come back when I can," Qui-Gon promised. "Take care, dear one. You as well, my new friend."

"We will," Luke promised. "And we can talk some more then about those questions. Rest, Master."

Qui-Gon faded away, and Anakin got the part aligned and secured before looking at Luke. "That all just happened, yeah?"

"Yeah," Luke agreed, nodding. "I didn't know it wasn't... normal. Ben and Master Yoda both could do that; it's how I've gotten a lot of my training. But I'd never heard his voice before."

"Huh. Well. Okay." Anakin then flipped back up and scrambled to a new spot to keep working on his ship, filing this away as one more piece of their weird lives.

Luke nodded and let it go, returning his attention to the _Twilight_ \-- his father, he was learning, would talk about things exactly when he was ready to.

+++

As luck would have it, the 501st was called to rescue a beleaguered smaller unit before Ahsoka could make it back from Kamino.

Unfortunately for the Seppies, she was not alone when she came back, and the troop transport ship she was flying escort for was armed and ready to prove they had what it took to be 501st material.

Ahsoka was smart enough to let some of Anakin's pilots move to cover her, not wanting to risk the prototype A-Wing the Kuati had sent out to be tested. That did not keep her from calling targets to the troop ship, maneuvering for best visibility and taking shots of opportunity. She had learned, long ago, not to try and re-enter a capital ship during combat maneuvers unless absolutely necessary, courtesy of a few bad battles.

"About time you came back. New friends?" Anakin called over the combat channel in a moment of regrouping.

"Lots of them, Skyguy!" Ahsoka said cheerfully. "They want to -- whoops!"

Luke heard the chatter turn back to quick, solid commands as the enemy re-engaged with smarter tactics for the battle at hand. He was busy on the far side of the fight, thinking insults at the fighter he had -- Artoo had it tuned to its best, but kriff he missed his X-Wing -- and doing his level best to keep all of his people alive. He didn't enjoy destroying poor droids that had no choice, but he had living breathing people to protect from them, so the droids were out of luck.

It was a different kind of fight than he was used to, by far, but that was just life. He dodged a turbolaser barrage, cursed as what he'd dodged hit one of his squad, and turned the turret to scrap a moment later.

The fight was tighter, but the numbers, with the troop ship's guns, were in the Republic's favor now. Ahsoka used those guns to her best ability, supplementing Rex's volleys from the _Resolute_ itself until the Separatist capital ship started trying to withdraw.

That was the moment Anakin had been waiting for, as bombers he had maneuvered around the battle made a run at the retreating ship from a vector that was less shielded now in an effort to protect from the massed force 'ahead' of them.

One after another, the bombers dropped their payload in the same exact spot, just back from the command tower. On the fourth drop, just before the last bomber could release, explosions began within the capital ship itself, and that fifth bomb helped the chain reaction go solid.

"KRIFF YEAH!" was echoed all over the channels.

Luke's voice was very definitely in that mass cry, he had no problem admitting. There was nothing quite like seeing a capital ship go down -- at least, not at this end of time -- and after the hurt it had put on the first legion here, and now the _Resolute_ 's crew... yeah. "Sound off," he called on his link to his squad.

Waterfall's pilots chimed in with only two gaps from his direct squad.

"Good flying, sir!"

"Alright, men, look alive and start tagging the distress beacons for pickup," Anakin called to everyone, "if you're on that duty. Clean-up squads, verify enemy kills, and push the debris toward the primary or that capital ship."

The world they were fighting over had too large a population to risk anything making it to ground and hurting people.

"Good job all of you," Luke answered, and then set to hunting survivors, stretching his Force-sense out around him into the debris field. He'd gotten good at this, between Yavin and Hoth, and the months of battles with the survivors after Endor.

There _were_ people alive out there, and every minute could make the difference for them.

It made all the difference, and he saw the prototype A-Wing helping. Ahsoka, like many of Plo's Foundlings, had an affinity for Finding. While none of them had followed him as a Consular except for Kit, that was something they shared with him.

Eventually, though, they were pulling back into their ship, the troop ship docked to an airlock. Not all of the boys were meant for them, but after a few adjustments, it looked like the remainder would be going to the unit they had come to assist instead of going on to the 212th.

Medical was the destination for the three Jedi, to help with any casualties that they could. Kix and Coric and Vasq, among other medic-trained brothers, had their hands full with vod'e and Fleet alike from the barrages.

"Who's the better healer?" Luke asked, as they headed there fast. "I have almost _no_ healing training at all. Let me watch you for a minute or two, and I'll probably get it, but. I need to see it."

Ahsoka and Anakin looked at each other, and then shrugged.

"Watch me; we're about even in how we do it," Anakin said, ruefully. He kept meaning to ask for more training, so he could pass it on.

"All right," Luke nodded. "By the way, hi Ahsoka, nice flying."

He followed his father through into medical, shocked at the number of bodies on berths throughout the big space. Ahsoka veered off, but he stood at his father's right, left hand very lightly on his upper arm to get a better sense of how this whole healing thing worked.

Anakin gave what he could for instruction, using Huttese to avoid upsetting the vod they were working with, but mostly it was letting Luke feel him work.

Luke sank into the half-trance Yoda had taught him to learn as rapidly as possible, letting the flow of the Force and his father's low words embed themselves into his mind. It felt... simple enough. It was just... encouraging the body to do what it knew how to do -- a lot faster. But it was limited... why?

Anakin was only using the vod's own physical energy, not adding his own immense potential, he decided after a few moments. In Huttese, he asked, "Why not add your own energy? Is that dangerous somehow?"

Anakin looked at the younger man, then frowned. "I don't know? This is how I was taught. And… not many people share energy outside training bonds, as far as I know?"

"All right," Luke said, still wondering about it. "I think I see how it works well enough, now. Talk to you again once we're done in here." He switched back to Basic to say 'thank you' to the vod he didn't recognize, and moved to the berth next to where Anakin was working, and went back into the half-trance to help.

The body under his hand was badly hurt, but... knew how to heal, it just needed to do it faster. A lot faster. The Force could help with that, if he just used it right. He could do it better if he gave some of his own energy to the process, pushed it into the vod and pulled it into himself from the galaxy itself, so that was what he did.

And again, and again.

"Sir!"

The imperious voice was Coric, not Kix, and then there was a hand under his elbow, as he was being guided to sit down. "You have done more than your share," Coric added, before moving on.

Anakin had looked over, saw his medic had it, and gone back to the vod that needed him. He was still going, moving the energies as he'd been taught, but he suspected Luke had tried his radical approach and used more than he should, to impact the vod-jetii awareness enough to be told to knock it off.

Still, he liked the thought of it, and knew it might just make the difference in the future.

Luke let himself be led, blinking a little as he came out of the trance completely. He felt like he'd been lifting his X-Wing and putting it down all day, or worse, but... he looked back down the row of berths, and saw healthy vitals. They were alive, and well, and that was apparently going to have to be enough.

He fished a ration bar out of one of his pockets and started downing it, realizing he was starving.

Eventually, Anakin got glared at by Kix, and he came over to Luke, sitting beside him to catch his own breath.

"Thanks. You did great, out there and in here," he said, meaning it fully.

Luke flushed a little, but he knew it was the truth. And that his father meant it. "Thanks. You were pretty amazing yourself, when I could pay attention. I'm a really good pilot... but this," he looked around the room, "I'm glad to be able to do."

Anakin nodded at that. "I know. Sometimes… this is the part where I know I am needed most. Because they deserve everything we can give them."

Ahsoka came back in then, looked over all of the ones they had helped, looked satisfied, and went to Kix.

"I don't see any of the usual trouble?" she said.

"No, sir. I think we can manage this time without the sedation effect," Kix said, a wry smile on his lips despite the grim setting of his brothers so injured, some dead despite their best efforts. She hugged him, then came to stand in front of the pair.

"Come on, you two. Real food, probably sleep for you while I go take the Admiral's briefing. I'm fresher than you both."

"Okay," Luke agreed, pushing himself up to his feet. He turned to offer his father a hand up, "and I'm not going to argue."

He'd become pretty sure that 'Admiral Yularen' had been one of the dead from the first Death Star, but... that didn't mean anything yet. He felt like a solid, loyal man with genuine concern now, and that was what Luke cared about.

"Neither am I," Anakin decided. "Yeah, yeah, write it down."

Ahsoka smirked at him. "See ya both." She jogged out, going to find a lift to the bridge and left them to their own devices then.

"Sometimes, she makes me feel old," Anakin grumbled. "Then I remember that she drops into sleep three times a day the moment she stops moving." He let Luke help him up and then headed for the nearest mess.

"Three times a day?" Luke asked, curious, as they headed for real food. Ration bars were great, but even the industrial kitchens that fed the legion turned out better. "How long?"

"First and second shift tend to be the short ones. Half an hour, or less, on a bad day. If she's run herself hard, two hours each. And the third shift can go as long as three hours, four if she pushed too hard. So, she does get eight hours if she's really tired and needs it, but is usually closer to five? Between the three.

"Of course, in complete downtime, she's likely to just catnap half a dozen times on different vod'e, to make them all happy to be her pillow. Her language sounds like birds, but I swear Togruta evolved from cats of some kind," Anakin said, teasing a little even if his padawan couldn't hear him.

"I haven't been around her long enough to know, but... between the eyes and the teeth..." Luke nodded amusedly. "Especially with the naps added."

They turned into a mess, only half in use, and got food, settling to eat it. Proper meetings with Ahsoka would happen, and there would be the new men to put in companies… but all of that was for later.

+++

Ahsoka tapped on the latest command chart, frowning. "Luke has Waterfall?" she questioned, neutrally, of Rex as she tried to decide how she felt about that. She didn't know the full story yet, but there were two Artoos, and that meant really strange shenanigans.

She knew her own company was still in recovery mode; most of the shiny new troopers would be hers -- and if Rex thought he was going to rotate her away from them this time because of new men being inexperienced, she'd fight him on it -- but Waterfall often fell under Fives and Anakin, so that Rex had all of Torrent's experience.

"It's working out well," Rex answered with a nod. "He's picked up our tactics quickly. You'll take Cascade back, the General can come back to Torrent, and Luke will provide the Jedi support we haven't had for Waterfall. Fives' probably going to follow the General -- no, don't ask me what's going on there, I can't tell -- but Echo and Luke are getting along pretty well. Or I might shift Appo over to Waterfall if I'm going to have Fives underfoot."

"Or… since I have the biggest batch of Shinies we've had since Second Geonosis… you could come to Cascade for a bit?" Ahsoka invited, showing she was committed to her company but would not mind an extra hand. "Let Appo get more used to the officer spot, since you've got him down for that training course as soon as we land a spot in it."

"That'd do," Rex agreed... and he wasn't about to argue the utility there. With so kriffing many shinies it'd probably be a good thing to have him and Ahsoka double up there. Fives and Appo were normally fine with each other, and Torrent could handle the hottest fires the General found. "All right."

She looked at him, then decided against giving him grief for not arguing with her suggestion. It felt like he was acknowledging her tactical choices as sound, and she did not want to shake that by appearing too juvenile.

She set about shifting the command staff roster accordingly, shunting her NCO and Officer staff to accommodate Rex's place, while juggling Torrent's to match. She handed it back to him, to see if he approved her changes, so they could submit it to Skyguy for when he woke.

"What do you think of Luke?" she asked as she did, just to sound him out about the stranger that her master seemed to _like_.

Rex considered that question for a moment, trying to decide how best to answer it. "If more of the Temple were half as _jetii_ as he is... I'd worry a lot less about my brothers outside the 501st," he finally said.

That made her snap her eyes to him, reading all of his body language (as impossible as it was, the men were _more_ expressive in armor than out) and then shaking her head. "Alright then. I'll try to get to know him with that in mind."

"I would," Rex agreed, nodding. "He... I was going to put him up in the state cabin in Fleet quarters, at least until he and the General had talked a few times, 'lek? Headed up that way, and it... between his casual opinion about somewhere to sleep that wasn't hot-bunking with his twin, that he'd forgotten to grab a bag off the -- _Falcon_ , I think -- so could he borrow a set of our fatigues rather than trouble the quartermaster for anything special, no allergies or unusual food needs.... and then worried about if his astromech would have somewhere to charge in the cabin or would he have to calm him down from having to stay with the fighter to recharge... I turned around and hauled him down to our country."

Ahsoka blinked. "Well. Yeah. That was the right thing to do," she agreed. "Wow. And Skyguy actually likes him if I am reading that energy right." She shrugged. "I'll take it. Anything to help Skyguy stay even, and save more of our men," she added.

" _Elek_ to that," Rex agreed. "And yeah... as you said."

+++

Ahsoka had checked, knew Skyguy was inspecting the new troopers for himself, but that Luke was… supervising ship repair. That was interesting, as Anakin usually would have just juggled both of those, since he was particular about the ships.

She headed to the bay with most of the ships that needed work, under the guise (real as it would be) of offering to help rebuild them too, but really she wanted to meet this new jetii they seem to have adopted or been adopted by.

Luke felt her and turned, looking towards the opening bay doors for a moment, but then his attention snapped back to the work his team of vod'e was doing -- they were in the middle of breaking down an engine, and he needed to keep his concentration on the housing he was holding up. He kept an ear out, though, and called, "Hi again," when she was close enough for an easy conversation.

"Hey yourself," she said, studying the way he was shoving the Force around. It … was a different flow than she was used to, but her boys were safe with his control on it. "Figured I'd come do this, since I already met all the new boys on the trip out."

She eyed the various ships in need of service, trying to decide which one would need her small size the most.

"Welcome to the party, then," Luke said with a flash of a smile, "I sure won't complain about more help. You want to tackle that Interceptor that needs either a crane or one of us to get to its landing gear problem, or the one someone's going to have to crawl into the ducting after the fused condenser coils?"

"That's usually my job," she agreed to the last. "But I can do that after the brute lifting is over." She then looked around the bay at who was working on what, and peeled off two of them to help her on the landing gear problem. With a set of her feet on the deck and a calculation of the ship, she got it up in the air while the boys hastened to get under and start working.

That was when her comm went off, and she hit the button with the Force, the ship not even bobbling. "Yeah?"

"Dox here, Sir. Vasq said all the Shinies passed his inspection, since Kix was tied up with casualties, and is that good enough for you to sign off on?"

"Yes. You can send the report to my pad, and I'll do it after I finish playing mechanic."

"Will do, Sir." The comm snapped off then, and Ahsoka snorted.

"I have got to get him through the full medical training," she told herself, as a reminder about the lead corps man of her unit.

Luke was impressed at her fine control in addition to the heavy lifting she was doing -- he still struggled with that -- but he had work in front of him to do. He finally got to let the ship they'd been working on down to the ground, popped his spine and shoulders as he stretched, and went to circle through the bay. He wanted to check on each of the ships being worked on -- they were his responsibility, now, and he needed to be sure everything was right.

Ahsoka had moved to another of the ships -- and she definitely looked like she had everything under control on that one. Good enough for him.

"Hey, Luke? The ship with the Zeltron nose art? I can hear a burr in the throttle," Ahsoka called to him. "Make sure they get an astromech to actually run the scope on its harmonics before green-lighting it."

Luke grabbed the datapad he'd clipped to his belt and stuck a note in that ship's record, moving closer to it. He laid his left hand against the fuselage, his eyes half-closing, and nodded. "Yeah... I can't hear it, but... something's not right in there. Thanks, not sure I'd have caught that."

Artoo was busy, but one of the other astromechs came trundling up, apparently attracted by the discussion. "Hey," he greeted it, "if you're here to help, thanks."

The astromech's dome swivelled to study him, then it beeped, [Am R9. Will inspect,] and lifted up on boosters to socket in.

Ahsoka went back to what she had been doing, not that she had really stopped, but sometimes the boys took short-cuts when maintenance ran long. That ship would have been fine for a flight or two, but… not always.

Once they had all of the ships either fixed or tagged for further work on the next shift, Ahsoka broke free of the men that wanted to talk her montrals off after her being gone so long -- it wasn't just her company that had reacted badly to the kidnapping -- and headed over to Luke.

"Going for food or meeting up with Skyguy?"

The nickname she used for him still had him struggling not to laugh or boggle, and he half-shrugged one shoulder. "I'm trying not to wear out his patience, so I thought I'd go find something to eat. You know, once I'm not grease and hydraulic fluid from nose to boots, anyway."

Ahsoka shrugged, but then she rarely noticed the filth until she wanted to sleep. "He's… hmm. Must have approved the new command roster or is arguing it with Rexter," she told him after a moment's thought. "Alright; mind if I meet you in Waterfall's mess in fifteen? Or do you need twenty?"

Luke cocked his head at her. "Who needs that much time? See you in fifteen, yeah." He waited a beat, and jogged off to go get clean.

Thirteen minutes later, he was at Waterfall's mess, and starting to check on the few who were there at this time of ship-day.

Ahsoka made it in a minute behind him, laughing as the vod that had kept her company went on his way to his duty assignment. She went to get her food, and Luke heard the rapid fire, playful Mando'a between his father's padawan and the server. In the end, the server seemed to 'win', and Ahsoka had a second portion dropped on her tray before she came to sit down in the center of one of the long tables.

Luke finished his own conversation and went to grab a tray, smiling at the vod on the line -- Drifter, that was his name -- and chatting for a second before he joined Ahsoka.

"I have _got_ to get better at Mando'a," he muttered softly, "that sounded... interesting."

"Yep." She grinned. "I had a leg up when I started, because I'd heard it all my life in the visions. And it is an easy language to grasp all the basics. Learning how to slot that against double meanings is when it gets interesting.

"And it looks like Kix already warned the cooks that I need extra food again. I was arguing that I haven't started yet. He retorted that was good because I'd used all my reserves. And then served me double. I don't feel too bad though because apparently they managed to hunt on Felucia."

"Rex mentioned that -- the hunting, not... visions? My experiences with those haven't... exactly been good," Luke replied, shivering a little for a moment. "I'm starting to get it, but theirs is an -- unusual dialect, I think. Drifter was pushing extra food on you because... growth spurt, right? Anakin was worrying about you, with that."

Ahsoka nodded. "Yeah. The boys take good care of us, and we so don't deserve them -- "

"Shove it, Sir; ner'jetiise," came from the man to Luke's left, a vod he placed as one of his pilots Oddball.

"We don't and you can't change my mind," Ahsoka told him before wriggling her nose at him. That made Oddball snort and go back to his food.

"As I was saying, they caught on to the fact I grow like they did, and have gotten it in their heads to make it as easy as they can."

Luke laughed at that nose-wriggle, and shook his head in amusement. "Why is it that I get the feeling that's a frequent... debate?"

"Because it is," Ahsoka said. "The Vod'e are all the best that anyone could hope for," she began, only to have a chorus of sounds ranging from teasing to embarrassed interrupt her. When it died down, she continued. "And we can only try to live up to their needs."

Luke nodded, and said mildly, "For what it's worth, I'm on your side on that. Sorry, Oddball."

"Ehh, we'll eventually educate you jetiise," Oddball replied happily enough.

Ahsoka giggled and Luke saw/felt in the Force that her joy and amusement was literally contagious among the men, lightening their moods.

That made him bite his lip on the 'If you could, I doubt you'd want to' that he'd almost said. He just shook his head instead. "I guess we'll see, eventually."

There were cheers to that, and then food took precedence for most of them.

"You doing okay here?" Ahsoka asked him.

"Fine," Luke answered, then shook his head. "No, better than. There're people I miss, but... it's good here." He turned his attention to his food, working his way around the plate -- long habit, even before the Rebellion, but that hadn't exactly helped.

"Good. I kinda want the story Master Plo didn't let me get, if you're up to telling it to me at some point," she admitted. "But, since Rex decided you were okay, I'm cool with you. And the fact Skyguy likes you is almost as solid as Rex's opinion."

"I don't mind telling you," Luke said, willing enough, "and... thank you. That means a lot to me. The Captain is a fine man, from what I've seen. Some of that story, though, isn't for everyone's ears."

"Yeah I know. But you're welcome to come by Skyguy's and my cabin suite to talk to me," she said with a grin. "Do more one-on-one briefings in there than anywhere else because at some point the boys decided we needed a couch in the tiny space between the 'fresher and our sleeping cabins.

"Still not sure who brought it up, or how, or really even why, let alone where it came from."

"Sure," Luke agreed, "follow you up? Or do you have something else to get to once you're done devouring that?"

"Nope. I don't check in on this shift until closer to the end of it, usually," she said, before chasing the rest of her rations into her stomach.

That done, she floated both of their trays to the return bin, mostly to amuse the boys at her casual use of the Force, before she guided Luke to the suite she shared with her master.

Luke followed along with her, and -- yeah, she really hadn't been kidding about the cramped space, but there was actually a couch. He moved to settle on an end of it, turned towards the rest of it. "So, questions? Or should I just start talking?"

She took the other end, amused that he had chosen Anakin's end, and tucked her feet under her as she settled. "Tell me what you want to, what you think you can. I'm good with listening."

Luke laughed, pushing his left hand through his hair with a slight shake of his head as he tried to figure out where to start. 

Ahsoka tipped her head and realized that this human, like her own master, wasn't actually great at speaking about himself.

"Start with how you came to be at the fight, at that moment? Because this is not a typical system for pirates and bounty hunters," she said. "Not that you are one, but that ship I saw is not a typical fighter class, if you know what I mean."

"I really wish we knew," Luke answered, shaking his head. "We hit some kind of... hyperspace rift, heading to... actually, Han didn't tell me. Said he wanted it to be a surprise for all of us. We were all... pretty exhausted. Even Threepio and Artoo wanted a vacation. But then we hit the rift, not an Interdictor field but something... else, and we fell out onto the fight."

"Good thing you did. Don't think I've personally told you, but thank you for taking out Grievous. He's killed so many Jedi personally, and worse than that, he'd led so many campaigns that killed the men in huge numbers," Ahsoka told him. "I've never been good enough to beat him, only hold him back."

"You're welcome," Luke answered, "It... we were trying to just keep out of the way of the fight, but then that pod launched. I'd already talked to Master Plo a little, and I just... Knew. It had to be destroyed. Everyone's said something like that, so... I'm just glad he won't be able to hurt anyone else.

"And that it made for a warm welcome and for Master Plo to be... open-minded about everything. That helped a lot."

"Master Plo is best. Except for Skyguy, but that's a different best," Ahsoka said, glowing with her love for both men. "Master Plo is my Finder. He brought me to the Temple. So I've known him my whole life as a Jedi."

"He seems to be," Luke agreed, before shaking his head a little. "That's still... strange to me. That you'd leave your family so early. Anyway, that later. I remember Master Plo mentioned we're from the -- or rather, a -- future, but he wound up sending you off to Kamino before we got to talk again. Chewie was upset not to get to see you. I think you can expect a Wookiee-hug when we get to them, or they come back."

"Chewie… Chewbacca? I only just met him and I really, really like him!" Ahsoka exclaimed. "But a Wookiee hug is never to be missed. He was great, fixing the transmitter so we could be rescued!" She grinned a little. "Okay, so you are from a future that was bad. I had picked that up, because of Artooey.

"And… I'm fully briefed on what I took to Master Ti," she said far more soberly. "We won't lose my brothers."

Luke nodded, stretching out his left hand to her as he sobered, too. "I'm glad to hear that -- they're amazing people; I don't want to ever see what happened to them happen. Did the Master there have any ideas on how to stop it?"

"She was going to get Knight Nimpur to join her on the excuse of looking at the few genetic mutations the boys have that can be fatal," Ahsoka said. "But… no. Not yet."

"That's... a start, anyway," Luke said, but he slumped a little. The thought of what could happen to these men -- his men now, much as Rogue Squadron was -- left him sick. At least Huttese slavery only trapped the body, not... not the mind. "Force, I hope they find something quickly.

"You're obviously pretty good at secrets, so... my last name isn't Lars. It's Skywalker... and I was born on the day the Republic fell."

Ahsoka's mouth opened, then shut. She looked at him, then shook her head. "Wow. Okay then. You got the short from your mom." Her Skyguy? And the Senator? Made a kid before the war even ended?

That didn't actually sound like them, but maybe things had happened. Or the Force wanted to keep something of its favorite child, Anakin, once it knew it was losing him to the poodoo in his head. That had been a hard moment or three, even as distant as she had been, and while she hadn't gotten a chance to really settle in with him and check on him, he'd told her enough to know it was all tangled up in the Sith.

"That's what he said," Luke replied with a quick grin, before he sighed. "I wouldn't know. I don't remember her at all. Leia thinks she does, but... we're not sure. I grew up with my aunt and uncle on Tatooine. My father's stepbrother and his wife."

She made the most appalled face at 'Tatooine' before sobering up again. Skyguy had family -- step, that meant family from a second mating, but not by birth -- and he'd never said anything? She smelled a Bad Event lurking behind that, given Anakin's reactions to having to go there.

"Okay, so I cannot wait to introduce you to her then, because she is so great!" Ahsoka said, choosing to focus on the good bits.

"You and Father are both excited for that," Luke replied with a laugh. "I... he's so utterly in love with her. It was good to see, to hear. He's... there's nothing of the Sith Lord I had to fight in him. Not now. It's... amazing. And very comforting. I've heard just enough to know I can't wait to meet her."

Sith. Her Skyguy. Fighting his own son.

Kriff that noise!

No, she was going to focus on the good still. "He really does, and I have no idea how it is not a known thing through the Order, because he has no cool or calm when she's around. But we pretend it is secret to keep him out of trouble and the men adopted her as their Senator." She then giggled. "And Skyguy pretends that one nose art is actually Sabé, not her."

"Which one?" Luke asked, thinking of several paintings of women scattered across the ships. Twi'leki were more popular than human women, which made him a little edgy, but... they were young, and twi'leki _were_ gorgeous.

"I'll show you. I took that ship when we settled me into Cascade so Skyguy doesn't see it as often," she promised. "The boys are mostly tasteful. I've only ever seen one of Skyguy, and it's over in the 327th," she added, giggling. "Master Secura face-palmed, but she won't tell her boys 'no'."

Luke flushed and nearly buried his face in his hand. "I... there were a couple of those in the Alliance of me for some reason, Wedge gave me _no_ end of grief over it -- and collected holos, the jerk."

"Friends do that," Ahsoka said, nodding. "Knight Eerin is trying to catalogue all of the public art they make, and Master Tra Saa has requested permission to archive images of all of their tattoos." Armor counted as public art, but tats were personal, even if they were on display. Some brothers hid theirs; Rex for instance kept his marks well-covered.

That made him blink, surprised, and then smile, pleased to hear that people outside of the ones he'd met cared about the art, the culture these men were building in the middle of the chaos of this war. "That... that's good. They must have most of you helping, as huge as the GAR is.

"And I thought the Alliance was big. This is... a totally different scale."

Ahsoka nodded. "It's huge. And… we're so kriffed if we can't get the Separatist leaders pinned down and made to see that this is wrong. Because they can make droids in such numbers!" she said, radiating misery for her boys dying so much.

Luke moved, offering her his side and his arm at that misery -- she was so young, to be doing what she was, but so competent at it, too -- as he nodded. "Well... maybe unmasking the Sith will help convince them to stop.

".,.since, y'know, I don't think they'd listen to me telling them that the Separatist systems had hell from the Empire when he betrayed them too."

Ahsoka tucked in along his side -- different from her brothers, from Skyguy, but nice -- and breathed out. "I hope so. I mean, under it all, there's good reasons for them wanting to leave, but then the leaders turned it into a war machine.

"And I've seen them try to annihilate all life on some worlds."

Luke sighed, settling her a little closer, and nodded. "I still need a crash course in the politics, but from the ex-Seps I knew in the Alliance, I know they had reasons. But... 'annihilate all life'?"

She sucked in a rough breath. "Maridun. They made a weapon that literally destroyed all organic life it touched there. It took all Skyguy and Master Secura and Commander Bly and Rexter had to protect the locals. We don't think the weapon is stored elsewhere, because we found intel that said Maridun was the testing point, but who knows?

"People thought the Shadow Virus had been eliminated too, and someone managed to recreate it!"

"That's... as bad as some things I saw the Empire do," Luke said, shaking his head. "I mean... bioweapons are... yeah. No. ..but we got a ways away from me telling you about us, didn't we? Um. Artoo actually recruited me into the Alliance, the little sneak."

Ahsoka had to giggle at that. "He volunteered for the Grand Army of the Republic because it meant helping and being close to Skyguy. Or, at least, that's the way the Senator tells the story."

"Yeah?" Luke asked, intrigued. Artoo was definitely... very attached to his father, from what his astromech friend had told him and done, but that seemed pretty unusual.

She nodded. "They bonded when Skyguy was a kid, and he was happy to join back up with his favorite pilot."

"I'll have to get this story out of one of the two of them," Luke decided, "or maybe both. Separately. That's... cute. Me, he had a recording of the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, in trouble and asking for help. Like he had practice dealing with teenagers or something..."

That had Ahsoka giggling even as she shifted back into her own space, needing to be clear of the heat that Luke radiated. "Well, he deals with the vod'e daily?" she pointed out. "Though to be fair, a girl would only work with maybe a quarter of them. And maybe on me."

"Really?" Luke asked, blinking. "A quarter?" He wasn't surprised that they tended to be focused on each other, but only a quarter? He'd never really cared about which bits someone had, himself.

"Might be lower?" Ahsoka said. "They're very focused on each other," she pointed out. "And there's a pretty high percentage of ones that just aren't into that."

"Huh," Luke said, thoughtful. "That makes sense though, I guess. Between what I've picked up about their... training, and shipboard conditions."

She nodded, then looked at him for the story to continue. "So Artoo rooked you with a pretty face?"

"Yep," Luke agreed, amused. "Four years later, it turns out that that pretty face, the Princess of Alderaan, was my twin sister -- we had no idea, and he couldn't tell us. He got me to follow him out into the desert, looking for this 'crazy old hermit' he said he needed to find... we called him 'Old Ben'. His name was actually, um. Obi-Wan Kenobi."

The color drained from her lekku, fading the blue almost to gray. Obi-Wan Kenobi, her grandmaster (and really, master in some ways as he helped Skyguy navigate handling her) had survived the slaughter of the Jedi?

That would mean, unless he'd somehow been separated from his unit, he might have had to kill Cody?!

That thought **hurt** , because she was privately rooting for Cody to make her grandmaster better, stronger, and actually able to admit his emotions.

Luke reached for her hands, taking them both gently, murmuring her name worriedly -- and now he was really, really glad he hadn't told any of this to his father, if Ahsoka was reacting this way.

She managed to pull herself back into her control, settling that emotion away from her in the Force, washing it away. "Sorry. Just. He and his Commander are very close. And… with what the chips did in the time you are from? That… hurt."

Luke cocked his head, then understanding hit, and he swallowed. "That... is terrible, yeah. I didn't know. That was the first time I'd ever been told my father was a Jedi -- my uncle did his best to protect me, even if I'm never going to really understand why _I_ was so important. Anyway.

"Artoo had the stolen plans for a new Imperial superweapon and needed to get back to Alderaan with them. Apparently Obi-Wan knew the Viceroy?"

That got a long string of giggling from her. "He _knows_ the Viceroy almost as well as Skyguy knows the Senator, to hear some people talk? Like, apparently they used to get in trouble on Coruscant together in the lower levels?"

Luke just stared at her, trying to match the image of Ben -- reserved and calm and endlessly, infuriatingly serene -- with someone that got into trouble in the lower levels of Imperial City. Especially with _Leia's father_?! And Ben and sex just... no, that was definitely something he wasn't thinking about. It was just gossip, right?

"I... wow. That... um. Wow."

"But yeah. I actually met everyone right after the 212th and 501st were ending siege activity from helping the Viceroy get through with a relief effort," Ahsoka told him. "And there's been a few side missions as a favor between them since then."

"Huh. That's... something," Luke said, shaking his head. "Hard for me to imagine. We managed to get off Tatooine, but got, um, intercepted and pulled onto the superweapon. Artoo figured out where Leia was, we managed to get out of the detention block and back to the _Falcon_ , but... we lost Ben, escaping."

He wasn't going to tell this girl Vader had killed him.

She closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head. "Never happening. He might walk far away, any of us might, before we get this done, but he won't have to outlive the Order. It's too much a part of who he is."

"No," Luke agreed. "He won't. We're not going to let it happen. Leia got us to the Alliance base, but they'd managed to stick a tracker on the _Falcon_. So we had that thing coming down on us -- thank Force it was so massive it could barely utilize hyperspace -- and the analysts could only find one weakness. Sort of a tricky shot with photon torpedoes, but... not that bad. Everyone else was going 'it's hopeless'.

"One of the squadron captains had flown with my father, and decided to take a chance on putting me in a fighter. Long story short... I made the shot. We lost a lot of good people getting me the opening, though."

"Well, good that you were there then. Tricky shots and Skyguys work pretty well hand in hand." She reached over and patted his arm. "We do lose a lot. It makes us try harder for the survivors though."

Luke nodded, leaning into that hand on his arm, sighing softly. "I... yeah. That's all you can do, I've found. It just aches. Every time. We had to flee that world, and after... a few adventures, we wound up on Hoth -- ever heard of it?"

"Cold weather world. Not one I've visited," she said. "And Rexter's probably glad for that. He and the boys have a very weird reaction to seeing me in cold weather gear for some reason."

Luke arched a brow, got an expressive 'I don't get it' shrug, and left that alone. "Yeah. That's one way to put it. The whole planet's frozen. I was out on a tauntaun and got ambushed by a wampa -- giant furry beast, fangs and claws the length of my hand -- and hung upside-down in its cave. Thankfully my 'saber'd fallen where I could get it and get loose. But it had a mate, I didn't want to kill them both, so I ran out of the cave.

"Night'd fallen while I was unconscious. I'd've frozen solid if Han hadn't risked the night to come try to find me. His tauntaun died just before he got to me, but he got a shelter up in time to keep us alive. One of my squadmates found us the next morning, when the speeders could actually run."

"Wow. That… that's a good friend," she praised, happy to know Skyguy's _ad_ had some kind of support around him.

"He is," Luke agreed, wholehearted, smiling with both pleasure at her praise and the thought of Han in general. "Han's the best. He may act like a cynical, hard-bitten scoundrel... but if he cares about you, there's nothing he wouldn't do. He and Leia are absolutely ridiculously in love, it's cute." Not that he wasn't just as much in love with Han, and not that he and Leia were willing to let a blood-relationship they'd never known existed separate them, either.

"The wampa had hit me right before I could get eyes on what turned out to be an Imp probe droid broadcasting its find, so that landed us in the fire again."

"Imp. Empire. Sith Empire. Just like ancient times," Ahsoka said, making herself not flinch from the possibility of that coming to pass even if they saved the men. They would find a way to resist, to beat the Sith, no matter what, she vowed inwardly.

'Yeah... I guess so," Luke agreed. "Tatooine's not big on education, but I did learn about that. Oh, right. Before Han got to me, I started hearing Ben, telling me to go to a particular system and find 'Yoda', his old teacher. So once everyone had made it out of the base -- Force bless ion cannons -- I.. took the advice.

"I never want to set foot on that planet again."

"Can't blame you, though it sounds like a great hunting trip for me and Master Ti some day," Ahsoka said casually. "You had Force Visions that told you to go find Master Yoda? He survived… well, not surprising. He is the oldest Jedi ever. And not always with a unit, and he's only a Jedi."

"...only a Jedi?" Luke asked, curious about the phrasing. "And... I guess a vision is close enough. Snakes. Snakes _everywhere_ , and some kind of finned swimming thing big enough it swallowed Artoo whole for a few seconds, before it decided it didn't like taste of droid -- or didn't like being shocked, one of the two. Snakes, and fog everywhere. I think the whole planet is a swamp."

Ahsoka wrinkled her nose. "Most snakes don't make great food. And swamps are mucky. Also, I'm going with both because I know Artoo." She grinned a little. "And here I thought it was Threepio who had that phobia, but Artoo actually did get eaten! Huh." She shrugged at the first question. "Distinction between someone who is driven by the Code, and someone who is driven for the Vod'e."

Luke thought about that for a second, then nodded. "Yeah... that makes sense. Yoda admitted that the Order had some serious failings, but he still... didn't really understand that nothing was going to stop me going to save my friends."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Look, I loved him as a youngling. And he did remember that I had Seen Skyguy as my master, and he is the reason I was assigned. But… he, and several other older Jedi, don't understand what makes people _able_ to give their all to other people.

"I love my boys. I would do near anything to save them. But I can still function outside of that need to serve the Force first," she said. She might only be sixteen years old, but that was something she knew to her core. Even if it was Rex's life at risk… she had faith in her ability to do the thing the Force decreed best for all.

She'd just be as sneaky as her Master and manage both, if at all possible.

Luke shrugged slightly. "I'll do what I feel is best, without letting the dark side slip in... but the Force is big enough to take care of itself. If we don't take care of people first, save and help them first, what good is all the power we have?"

She looked at him, then her eyes got big. "You… wow. You may have just hit something dead center.

"I see the Force as a guide that is calling out things needed _for_ those who can't fix things. But a lot of Jedi do see it as something they are protecting instead of serving, no matter what they say. It's like Madame Nu carefully displaying all these things in the Archives but feeling they should not be used."

Luke hummed at that, considering, then finally shrugged. "I like your version. And I'll live by mine. The Force is a guide to what needs to be... but I'll pick the people around me, the people I love, over some nebulous 'should be', every time. Probably comes from spending the last four years with a price on my head and a squadron of men to keep alive," he admitted with a slight smile.

"Fair. And probably closer to Skyguy, to be honest," she told him. "So, Master Yoda and Dagobah… poor Artooey. What happened then?"

"I -- or Ben -- finally convinced him to teach me, and I started getting a crash-course in connecting to and using the Force, much to Artoo's upset sometimes. I had a little while... and saw Yoda lift my X-Wing out of the mud and move it to stable ground, wow was _that_ an awakening. I wanted to stay, to learn... but then I started having visions of Leia and Han and Chewie being tortured.

"Yoda wasn't entirely wrong trying to warn me off, to stop me... I mean, it _was_ a trap. Han got taken away, but Leia and Chewie and Han's friend Lando managed to get away -- and come rescue me. After I managed to escape... with the incredibly unwelcome news that the Sith Lord was my father. That he wasn't dead the way Ben had said he was, just... turned. Except now I know that was Compulsion.

"I don't really recommend hanging from a comm array on the underside of a tibanna gas mine structure, or having to fall onto a freighter to get away at all."

She gave him an incredulous stare for all of that, shying away from her Skyguy as a Sith monster again. "Well, it's a trap. Once you know it is one, you have to spring it. It's Skywalker Law, or something!"

"I can go with that," Luke agreed, grinning. "A lot of stuff happened while we were trying to locate Han -- Jabba _had_ to pick that year to go touring," he growled, "but eventually we did find him. I'd gone back to Ben's hut and found out how to create a new lightsaber, since the other one dropped into the mine, and... well, Jabba didn't want to bargain with me.

"I tried to tell him that was a bad idea, but he decided to try and feed me to a rancor and then all of us to the sarlaac. Leia actually killed him, while Chewie, Lando, and I were dealing with the guards."

Ahsoka let out a little yip of solidarity for this woman she had never met. "YES!" She then grinned. "That hut'uun, _after_ we delivered his kid back to him, was going to kill us anyway. Thank Force the Senator was able to reason with him, or it would have been a slaughterhouse.

"Skyguy had already had a few bad days running and we were both pretty much running on Force fumes."

"Kid?" Luke cocked his head, searching through his memory for any mention of a Hutt child.. and couldn't come up with anything. "Must have left him -- or her -- on one of the other worlds, I never heard of a child of his. Huh. I wonder if that was part of why he was so... difficult. Doesn't matter, though.

"Once I knew Han was safe, I went back to Dagobah, intending to stay as long as it took to finish my training. The Force had other opinions, I guess. I only had a few minutes with him before he went back to the Force. Not that that stopped him from showing up after, but it..." He sighed, heavily, studying his hands, the differences probably only he could see.

Ahsoka frowned. "Showing up… after? Like a ghost? That's nothing I've ever heard of. And the boys would be spooked. They have superstitions about such things."

"Ben and Yoda both could," Luke agreed. "Ben did it more, Yoda only appeared to me a couple of times. There's one like them around now, Master Qui-Gon Jinn, but he can't actually show himself, and I had to help Father hear him. He says he didn't finish the studies before he died, and I don't have any idea how to help him. He's the... 212th's? helpful ghost."

"Huh." She'd fallen on the side of latent Force sensitivity in those that had been saved by the so-called ghost in that unit. But… "That would be Master Obi-Wan's master, and Skyguy's Finder. He was a creche-mate to Master Plo, the last of them, actually. I mean, I'm told Master Mundi and Master Che are his age, but there were two clans that year, and he was added to the mostly human bunch by his Finder."

"Master Jinn said he'd been studying it to keep from leaving Master Plo," Luke agreed with a nod, "but he didn't tell him, and now he _really_ doesn't hear him."

"I can work on that," Ahsoka said. "He has his sons, and us girls, but he should have his friend too."

"Father said he would, too," Luke nodded. "So hopefully between the two of you, you'll convince him. With Yoda gone, I went back to the Fleet... and got there just in time to hear that the Empire was building another superweapon. That the Emperor himself was going to be off Imperial City -- Coruscant -- for the first time in a decade, inspecting the construction.

"It seemed like the perfect time to maybe make a final strike."

She shifted, arms up around her legs as she listened to him, rapt by the idea of ending the Sith for all time. "Also sounds too convenient, but…."

"Yup," Luke agreed. "I mean. The intel was bought at the cost of a _lot_ of lives, it was legitimate... but it was also intended to be the end of us. The superweapon was being protected by an energy shield generated from a nearby moon. The shield generator was supposed to have a skeleton crew. Han led a team of commandos -- and Leia, Chewie, Artoo, Threepio, and I -- down to the surface to take the generator.

"And as we were getting through the Imperial security, I felt him. My father, I mean. He was on one of the Star Destroyers. We got onto the moon, though. He didn't try to stop us. We... made some friends, the Ewoks." He held out a hand at Wicket-height. "This tall, or shorter, and still using stone and wood and bone for weapons, but fierce as Wookies and really, really angry the sky-people had destroyed a sacred place with their building. We managed to befriend them, they agreed to help in the attack... and I felt him landing."

Ahsoka thought she really liked the sound of them, and filed away the thought for later exploration. Fierce people were sort of her favorites.

"I left the team and went to talk to him, to try to pull him away. The man everyone had so much respect for, the Jedi warrior... he couldn't be entirely gone. He'd tried to convince me to go with him, before, to help him overthrow the Emperor. I had to try to reach him."

Ahsoka nodded fiercely. "It's Skyguy. I don't care that he could become a Sith… because he could also become the BEST JEDI ever. He's just, complicated. And not in vod'e ways."

"What do you mean by that?" Luke asked, distracted for a moment. "Vod'e ways, I mean."

Ahsoka hesitated, then decided he'd better understand, so he didn't wig out when they helped the 327th or one of the other complicated units.

"Sometimes a jetii and vod really, really click. Like… Skyguy-and-Senator click," she began. She then puffed up a bit. "It's the only choice any of them have ever been free to make, who they love, who they kriff! So… don't go getting weird at them, okay? But yeah, if a jetii or vod says 'complicated' they mean sex and more is happening."

"As long as it's the vod's decision, that it's a free choice as much as anything can be for them right now," Luke said, clamping down on his first protective reaction. People had to make their own decisions. "I'm not going to say or do anything. From what you're saying, it is, so... that's none of my business. If it's _not_..."

"There's a list," Ahsoka said firmly. "A lot of people do know, and if Cody or Rex senses a problem, it is forwarded to Master Plo."

"Who's senior enough to do something about it, and would take it seriously," Luke nodded, and relaxed. "I'd think that would be... a problem with the Code you all operate under?"

Ahsoka nodded. "Which… well. The Order is either going to need to change or a bunch of us will be asking the Altisian sect if we can join. They don't abhor Attachments the same way."

"There's a reason Master Plo decided that should be my cover," Luke agreed with a quiet laugh. "So... because he is attached to all the men, he's the one everyone's trusting with the knowledge of who's actually following their heart instead of some rules. That makes sense to me."

"Yep. He's buir to the ones in the field. Master Ti is buir to the ones on Kamino," Ahsoka said easily enough. "That's why they call him General Buir. But she is just Buir, because she refuses to be a general since she left the field to care for them."

"At least that's an easy way to tell them apart," Luke replied, amused. "I let myself get caught and taken to him... and despite what I'd hoped, he took me up to the Emperor, on the superweapon."

She wrinkled her nose. "Setting his own trap or still caught in compulsions?" she asked him.

"Still caught," Luke replied, sighing quietly. "He... I think there were failsafes built into the life-support suit, that he couldn't risk activating, in addition to his head being full of Sith poison. The Emperor was the singlemost terrifying being I've ever been anywhere near. A feeble old man, to look at him... but the very air around him was poisoned with the dark side. And he was so sure of himself. So absolutely certain that everything was going to go the way he Foresaw."

Luke snorted, tossing his head a little. "He didn't See the Ewoks. Or that Han wasn't going to let Lando and the others on the shipside attack down, no matter what it took. He didn't understand friendship, or loyalty. I tried to pull my 'saber back to me, to attack him... and my father blocked it. We fought, I tried to avoid giving the Emperor what he wanted -- namely, me to kill my father and take his place -- and then they threatened Leia.

"I... came so close to killing him. I actually took his forearm off in my anger before I realized the Emperor was laughing and remembered. I tossed my 'saber away. Told him he'd have to kill me, I wasn't going to give in. He... made a pretty good attempt at it, with... streams of lightning, from his hands? Nothing I'd seen before."

Ahsoka shuddered. "Skyguy's been hit by that. From Count SithSpit," she added. "It looks bad. I've been electrocuted, but that's worse. The Dark Side just seems to magnify the pain by attacking your mind too.

"Or that was the best Skyguy and Master Obi-Wan could convey."

"That's a good way to put it," Luke agreed, shuddering. "It was... every bad sensation in the world, but more than that, hate just... lashing into you, ripping open your mind, laughing at the pain you're in. I don't know if it was that the Emperor was going to sacrifice him, or that I was begging for his help... but Father seized him up, took all of that into himself, and threw him down the reactor shaft. Screaming."

Ahsoka bared her teeth in triumph for her master, for this nephew she'd never known. "Good!" She could think of far more satisfying deaths but it would do.

Luke nodded, lost for a moment in the memory of his relief and his struggle to his father's side. "It... I think it fried most of the support systems. He was almost unable to help me at all, trying to get to his ship in the chaos of the shield having gone down and the attack. He kept trying to make me leave him.

"Kriff that. I managed to get him onto the ship anyway. But he... after all that time... he died himself. He died free."

Ahsoka closed her eyes, struggling not to cry, to think of her beloved master trapped by the Sith and finding freedom only to die. She pulled her knees closer, tucking into a smaller ball on her corner of the couch, and just considered what it had been like for Skyguy.

"Free, and knowing his son was all he could want," she finally said, opening her eyes, voice thick with emotions.

Luke ducked his head, looking sideways towards her, as he said softly, "I hope so. I hope I was. Am."

She smiled at him, as he hit all of her memories of Quiet Anakin, something that was a secret treasure to her. "I think so, from what I've seen."

"Thanks," Luke told her, and meant it. "We had a little bit of time to celebrate, after Wedge and Lando destroyed the superweapon, but then we had to scramble to respond to a bunch of stuff that had been on deadman's switches. Things finally sort of halfway stabilized and Han decided we were going on vacation... only to end up here."

"And… isolated from all you'd known and made, while helping unmake it by fixing the ways the Sith broke it all," Ahsoka reasoned. Half a second later, Luke was the recipient of an attack hug, as she threw arms around him in a quick pounce, squeezing hard. "You are aliit, and so are your friends, and we will do our best to make good lives with you once we break the Sith here-now!"

"Oof!" Luke yelped, but his arms wrapped around her just as tight. "I... yeah. Most of the people we won with, they're barely born, or children. So we just have to... make things work here. Make them _better_. With all of you."

"We can do it! You'll see! Waterfall already likes you, so you're on a good start!" Ahsoka said, squeezing again before she remembered humans were soft without armor. She pulled back then and grinned at him. "So, we're keeping you."

Luke smiled at her, appreciating that more than he knew how to express -- and also very grateful for the no-longer-vise around his ribs. Wow, she had a _lot_ of power in those arms. "That... sounds good to me."

"Good!" She then yawned, sharp teeth on display as it hit like a ton of bricks, and she sighed. "Okay, been up too long again. I'm here, if you need anything, okay?" She got up to bed so her Master didn't find her sleeping on the couch again.

"Thanks, Ahsoka," Luke said, and got up to leave. "Sure thing. I'll find you if I need you. Sleep well."

"Would rather be with a vod, keeping them from stressing injuries, but here now," she said absently, before vanishing into her room.

Hadn't his father said something about a growth spurt soon? Luke cast a look back after her, then shut the door up behind him.

+++

Yes, his father had, and a day after Ahsoka was back, it hit.

Luke felt her pain through the Force, strong enough to bring him awake. It wasn't, he didn't think, coming from her room or medical...

He wound up cutting through his people's common areas to get to the part of the _Resolute_ that was dubbed 'Cascade Country', following the sense of pain and misery. The closer he got to one of the big barracks rooms, the more he also felt a sympathetic wave and a fierce sense of chosen duty.

Stepping to where he could see in through the open door, he saw a floor nest had been created, with a few vod'e on it surrounding Ahsoka. She was lying face down, and the boys around her were massaging her legs and arms very carefully. Someone else was just bringing in a hoard of jerky and other protein rations, with two water bottles slung on his belt.

"It'll pass… no, Commander, don't try to draw up. You'll just get worse cramps when you uncurl and you know it," Tok was telling her, the senior most of the brothers on the floor nest, and the one currently working her dominant arm.

"Hurts."

"Can I help?" Luke asked, from the doorway, looking at the men that had so blatantly taken over caring for her. Given their circumstances, he still had a hard time understanding why they were so devoted instead of angry, but... it was something amazing to see.

Vasq -- he was medic-trained in her unit, and Kix spoke well of him -- was the one with the food and drink. He looked over, then shrugged.

"Not sure you much can. She has to get through it, and we understand. Not at the rate she does it, but we had spurts too."

"Hey, Luke," Ahsoka said, trying to keep the misery out of her voice to be civil. "Should probably go. Skyguy's still… well. And Rexter would probably like to have an officer that's fresher than I will be until this is done."

"Mmm, yeah," Luke agreed, but he hated to leave her in pain. Then again, he was no healer, not really, though he was good at what they'd shown him so far. "All right. If something comes up I can help with... let me know, okay?"

"We will, sir," Tok said, glancing over again. "Massage, food, sleep usually do the trick though. And if she's in here -- "

"She's not being cranky at the Captain!" came the chorus from the others before they all laughed, even Ahsoka, though hers was weaker.

"Not my fault I didn't know the symptoms before that first one," she grumbled.

Luke laughed, shook his head, and headed to find the Captain in question, rather than keep bothering her. Or them.

+++

This war, Luke thought for the fifteenth time -- crouched behind a downed Separatist tank left behind as they retreated and holding a vod together with his will and his hands, pushing life into him -- was nothing like his. His war had been, mostly, a war in space, where things happened at a distance and in his ear.

In one way, it was... easier. The opponents, here, weren't people, weren't lives he was snuffing out when he took the head off a droid or set off compressed tibanna with a throw of a thermal detonator. He regretted the destroyed droids, but with their limited programming, they weren't like Threepio. Or else he was just telling himself that to make it easier.

But this brutality, the grinding slog of taking ground sometimes only stride by stride, sometimes meters at a time, losing people that trusted and followed him to crippling blaster fire that bled their lives away or cannon fire that left mangled shrapnel in armor and flesh -- this was a different kind of hell.

The psychic trauma all around him sank into his mind and his heart, while the knowledge that all of it was nothing but a Sith gambit, a terrible destructive plot run on both sides by those lost to hatred, greed, and hunger for power had a cold, dangerous resolve burning in him.

He'd always believed that the Clone Wars had been fought in defense of the Republic, that the suffering had been worthwhile. Knowing even _that_ hadn't been true...

He shook his head hard, re-focusing on the vod under his hands. There were people -- civilians, just everyday people -- behind them, in danger, and there was this man to save if he could. This one... there. This brother would be all right.

Time to do something about the tank up ahead.

+++

"General Lars, my buddy Caper says you've been pretty keyed up. Need a hand setting off that detonator to get it out of your system?"

Hardcase's absolutely calm delivery in no way belied either the amusement or the actual, real interest in Luke that radiated in the Force.

In retrospect, Ahsoka might have seen it as inevitable, but in her defense, Hardcase was always a law unto himself.

Rex was being a master of not letting his own reaction come off too strong, leaving it to the new jetii to handle things his way.

He really wanted to wring his vod's neck right now though. The answer to someone noticing another person being tense was not always to make explosions.

Really.

In the few weeks he'd been with the 501st -- and it had stopped feeling strange to be proud of that, to accept their pride in their unit as something good and right surprisingly quickly -- Luke had seen and heard a couple hundred variations of that question as the men celebrated or mourned or simply burned off adrenaline.

He'd never expected to have any version of it turned on himself. Especially not from one of the most... playful, rambunctious, and outright scandalous vod'e in the entire legion.

Though actually... that last meant he probably should have.

And it wasn't as though Hardcase was wrong. The longer things went on without word about the men, the more worried he got, and these men were uncannily sensitive to his mood, his father's, and Ahsoka's.

He knew he was blushing -- why, oh why, had he never really tanned even on Tatooine? -- as he looked at Hardcase, studying that honest, cheerful interest. Leia and Han wouldn't mind, they weren't that kind of exclusive, so... did he want to?

"Why don't we take a walk and talk that over, Hardcase?" Luke replied, aiming for equal calm. He thought he even mostly succeeded.

Hardcase looked surprised for a fraction of a second, but then he grinned in an eerie resemblance to the way Han looked when he was being a charming scoundrel. "Sounds good, sir."

Ahsoka studied her food a little more closely; Hardcase might be her problem, ship-side, but this was not in the realm of 'must interfere now' categories at all. Her prankster was, by most accounts, good in his dealings in the berth, never one to stick to a certain person, or to hurt them in being so free.

Rex looked at her, saw she wasn't protesting this arrangement, and let it go. He just hoped this was going to fall under things General Skywalker found to be outside his own temper range.

Luke got to his feet, that grin already sliding right in under his skin, humming alongside the affection for the prankster he'd already come to have, and sent his tray flicking across the room to land where it needed to with a little bit of the Force to steady it. "Ahsoka, Rex, we'll pick our chat up later?"

Thank the _Force_ it was the two of them he'd been with, and not Anakin -- there was no way this would be ending well if he'd been down here. Rex felt exasperated but not worried, and Ahsoka was carefully not saying a thing, so neither of them objected. Good.

"See ya later, Luke," Ahsoka said, corners of her mouth up and her lekku twitching a little.

"Yes sir," Rex said, even as he did make his eyes meet Hardcase's, a warning passing. That his trooper gave a quick shrug of his shoulder was not reassuring, except in all the ways it was.

Hardcase actually was good with trauma cases and Last Vod Standing-cases. Maybe this would turn out okay?

"Have you actually been up on the observation deck, sir?" Hardcase invited.

"I didn't even know there was one," Luke answered, surprised. He wouldn't have thought there would be, not on a capital ship like this. The view from the bridge could be stunning, sure, but an observation deck? "Lead the way."

Hardcase did, keeping it friendly but professional in the halls, and… the observation deck was actually a space above a bay, where the men had rigged scaffolding, off to the side of the hyperdrive rings, but under the great shields that allowed quick launching and great views of the streaked non-space or starfields they traveled through.

"No one up here now, like I figured, since we're in hyperspace. People get dizzy sometimes," Hardcase explained before guiding Luke to some beat up pillows arranged in a nest.

"They do?" Luke blinked, startled, looking out on the starfields streaking past with a swell of the familiar, comfortable love he held for the security and freedom of a ship in hyperspace. "Really?"

He settled down into the nest in a mostly-boneless lounge, body turned towards Hardcase, looking at the brilliant blue of the angular, circuitry-like tattoos before his gaze found deep brown eyes again.

"I don't get it. Might not like to pilot, but this? Is good." Hardcase then licked his lips. "Almost as pretty as my company is, even."

That made Luke grin even as he knew the damned color was coming up in his cheeks again, and actually laugh, because that line was -- honest, but just this side of ridiculous, too. "Flattery? Well... it might get you somewhere. Why, though?"

"You deserve it," Hardcase said, and that was honest too. "Most jetii, they've never heard it. They don't get told things like how pretty or sexy they are.

"And, well, it sounded good to me," he added, grinning a little. "I like you. I like what my brothers say about you. You have the General's good will, and the Captain's respect… and the Commander worries over you, so she's decided you are full clan. Reasons enough to see if you need a hand unwinding the det cord."

Luke smiled at him, slow and easy, listening to the answer -- affection and desire rippled in the Force, honest and open -- and considering. He missed his twin and Han, badly, worried about them, and... it would be a relief and a release. And Hardcase, like all of the _vod'e_ , was beautiful in a hard-edged powerful way that was... actually incredibly attractive. It felt a bit like taking advantage, though.

"I miss my _vod_ and our mate," he said, "and I'm worried about her. She's doing what she does best, hunting allies of the sith in the political side of things... and I can't help."

Hardcase shrugged. "I get that. But no need to stay wound up, unless they're the kind that don't share? Have some brothers like that. Respect it. I'm only offering a little peace after a few booms."

"If we were exclusive like that, I'd have said it in the mess," Luke answered, reaching for his hand in reassurance, "I don't lead people on. Wouldn't do that to you."

The armor slid smooth and finely articulated under his hand, a comfort instead of the threat similar armor had been for so long. Hardcase was a joy, irrepressibly mischievous and utterly deadly as the situation required, passionately vibrantly alive -- and Luke decided. "But let's see if there's a spark, hm?"

Hardcase moved to where he could lean in and kiss Luke. Despite the bold invitation, or maybe because that was just how Hardcase worked, the kiss was gentle, not claiming, not fierce like some that Luke had seen in the rec rooms. It teased and slowly led to tasting, while none of the rest of the body language was pushy or threatening at all.

For all of that, it seared in all the best ways, pulled him in and lit his senses, and Luke found himself sliding closer, going for another kiss when the first ended. When that one ended, he flashed a smile and said, low, "So... my cabin?"

"Sir, yes sir," Hardcase said, all playful and interested at once.

That slow drawl ought to be illegal, but hell, it was an incentive to hurry. Luke eyed the ladder, shrugged, and went backwards over the railing, landing easily and looking up grinning. Hardcase, a vod to the core, just leaped, trusting his jetii to slow him enough to make the landing easy.

+++

Anakin looked Luke over the next day at breakfast, decided he looked fine, it was none of his business, and moved on. Ahsoka had warned him, in case Hardcase repeated his bold move in Anakin's presence.

Seriously, what else did he expect out of Hardcase? That vod was a mainstay of morale, even if sometimes his was… a peculiar way of doing it.

It didn't matter that it was his son. Or maybe it did. And if so, who better for him than a vod Anakin trusted? He knew Luke was tied up in the family he already had, and it just showed Luke was stronger, braver than himself, to be able to embrace those kinds of attentions from outside his chosen relationship.

+++

Ahsoka settled beside her master, waiting with him on the _Twilight_ for Artoo to decrypt the communication from Kamino. She was hopeful that it was the fix that they all wanted for the men, so they would be safe from the horrible future, from their nightmare.

Luke was on the bridge, and Ahsoka thought that was good for him. She did not want to think of Yularen as a Sith officer, but it was evident he had to have been in Luke's future. She thought too much of the man, for all that he was Fleet, because of the support and lessons he had given her as she grew up into being the Commander her men needed.

"Skyguy?"

"Yeah, Snips?" Anakin cocked his head as he turned towards her, curious at her tone.

"Are we going to be able to protect them from the Republic, after we deal with the Sith?" she asked, concerned, thinking maybe too many steps forward.

Anakin sighed, spreading his hands in front of him a little, thinking about Master Qui-Gon, and his mother, and every other time he'd seen the Republic fail to get within a sector of the right thing to do.. "I... don't know, Snips. We have to, but I don't know how."

"Okay." Somehow, his own loss over how to do it helped settle her nerves. "We'll just have to tackle that once we kick Sith Shebs off the galactic map then!"

Anakin reached for her, tugging her gently in against his side, grin coming up on his lips for her irrepressible humor. "Got that right, little one -- hey, there we go, thanks Artoo. Hello, Master Ti."

"Hello, Knight Skywalker, Padawan Tano," Shaak answered. She then switched to Togruti, the main reason Ahsoka was part of this. Ahsoka had a data pad, carefully disconnected and certified by Artoo to be safe, to transcribe as Shaak Ti delivered the fix for the chips to her.

The padawan frowned a few times, as Shaak had to use euphemisms for technical words at times, but she eventually had it all down, and then Shaak switched back to Basic.

"And be certain to be in a sound-proofed area, Ahsoka," she admonished, having switched so Anakin would know.

"I'll know why soon enough?" Anakin checked, pretty sure that that was in Basic entirely to keep his padawan from doing something she shouldn't.

Ahsoka wrinkled her nose. "Thank you, Master. And I will behave."

"I know you will. I just made certain of it," Master Ti said before looking at Anakin. "May the Force be with you, both of you." She then cut the comm to limit the chances of it being intercepted.

Ahsoka was already studying all that she had transcribed, going back and changing a few words that she had used the wrong Basic one for. "This… looks doable, and could be weaponized to remove troops that might be more conditioned than others." She handed it over to Anakin to read.

Anakin had been leaning over her shoulder, reading as she worked on fine-tuning the translation, but now he actually and he had a proper angle on it, and whistled softly. "Yeah, I see why she wants you in a soundproofed area, or off the ship entirely. The men would freak if you got hurt helping them."

"Yeah, I get that. Those frequencies are just inside my range," Ahsoka answered, sulkily, because she wanted to be right there helping soothe pain and confusion.

Anakin hugged her around the shoulders again. "I know, Ahsoka. Soon as you can, you'll be back out. This is going to be a logistical nightmare, but we'll get it done."

"You bet we will! Too bad Master Kit is tied up in the Senate side of this; he travels a lot normally." She considered who else would make a good courier. "We'll figure that out after we test it here."

"It is," Anakin agreed, "and... yeah. Only thing for it."

The first thing to do was find Luke and get him involved. That, though, was usually easy enough.

And they would all be breathe a little easier to have the men protected.


End file.
